J1'S WIN IN STYLE
20/01/2014
Gorey 52 Railway Union 0
For most people who have been following Gorey from the start of the season the above score line will not be a surprise. It has been a while coming from this team whom everybody knew had massive potential and yet have to be beaten in this league but have been wining by small margins and making hard work of all their wins, but on Saturday night under lights in Gorey they came of age and turned on a display of rugby that would please any rugby fan and especially the crowd that turned up on the night. The conditions were near perfect considering the amount of rain that have fallen and it is a tribute to the Gorey Ground Staff that the pitch was in such good condition and for all the players it made a welcome change to play on a pitch that did not turn into a mud bath by the end of the game.
The last time these two teams met in Dublin it was a cracking game and the Gorey faithful were expecting more of the same. From the whistle Gorey's intentions were obvious they went on the attack straightaway and after controlled phases of play Gorey's Forwards pushed over for the opening try. With so many forwards and backs involved in this try there were conflicting reports as to who had actually scored it, but after extensive investigations it was agreed the try scorer was Ben Horan. James Nolan converted without hesitation and play resumed with Railway Union realising that they were in a tough contest. The next try came from Adrian Copeland when after some measured phase play the ball was whipped out to the backs and Adrian made a great run up the sideline stepping players to score a lovely try, with another great conversion by Nolan the flood gates opened for Gorey. Next on the score sheet was James Nolan himself who spotted a hole in Railway's defence after some attacking play and put on the after burners to score in the corner and then converted his own try and Gorey were 21 pts to the good. Next up to score was Shane O'Leary just before the halftime break and with the conversion Gorey went into the break 28 pts up.
Gorey were not having the play all their own way as Railway were not lying down and were working hard around the break down and if there was one fault in Gorey's game it was the penalty count against them. Railway were constantly catching Gorey out with quick tap and go and this led to a sin bining before half time and another when play resumed in the second half. But it has to be said that even with two men in the bin and Railway pounding Gorey's line at the start of the second half Gorey forwards put up a blanket defence and held out and even ran in the next try by Neville Copeland after some super interplay. With the conversion taken Neville added another to his tally and this was followed by the try of the day from Darren Dunne that delighted the crowd after a long pass out to him by James Nolan. The final try of the day went deservedly so to J.P Redmond after he had work so hard all match around the fringes and Nolan converting and this left the final score 52 pts to nil
All in all it was a good night's work and leaves Gorey 13pts ahead in Division 2a with two matches to play and sets them up nicely for their Towns Cup match next Sunday against Mullingar in Clonattin K.O. 2.30pm
Team: 1. Ciaran Allen 2. Barry O'Connor 3. Tom Tomkins 4. AdrIan Copeland 5. Jason Emery 6. Michael Woods 7. Ben Horan 8. J.P Redmond 9. Matt Bater (Capt) 10. Stephen Dukes 11. Shane O'Leary 12. James Nolan 13. P.J Clince
14. Darren Dunne 15. Neville Copeland 16. Fergal Bolger 17. Robert Harrington 18. Colin Peavoy 19. Jordan Ahern 20. Will Karney.