29th April 2012

Under 15's cap memorable season with South East Cup Win

Gorey Under 15‘s finished a very successful season by securing the South East League Cup by defeating a good Kilkenny side last Saturday. The Gorey lads won 12 points to 0 in a keenly contested match which went right to the final whistle.

In the highly completive world of Leinster rugby trophy wins are hard to come by and are well earned. Ask any old rugby player and they will probably let you know in
considerable detail all the competitions in which they were unsuccessful. Ask about the trophy's won and the conversation will be much more brief. So it came to pass after 3 finals as under 14's and 2 semi finals this year the Under 15's finally reached the Holy Grail and secured the cup.

The game was played in Kilkenny and to make matters worse Kilkenny won the toss and played against the stiff breeze in the first half. This put pressure on Gorey to secure points in the first half to have a buffer for the second period. The Gorey pack started well and showed their intent by pushing into the Kilkenny half. A well taken ball from out of touch saw the ever reliable Paul Boyle surprise the Kilkenny pack and crash over from
about 5 yards to put Gorey up by 5 points to 0.

Kilkenny went in search of an all important score and some resolute defending by the Gorey team kept the marble city team at bay. Gorey were guilty of making life difficult for themselves by not using the elements to pin Kilkenny back in their 25 and at half time Gorey still had the slender 5 point to 0 lead.

Gorey then turned around at half time to face the elements and the expected strong challenge for the second half. The Gorey lads responded magnificently and in particular the pack with front row Achileea Kinsella, Jack Byrne and big Dan Keohoe backed up by second rows Darragh Bellanova and Captain Declan Wild dominated the scrums with at least 7 strikes against the head during the match. This set the platform for the back row
of Stanley Hadden Paul Boyle and Ross Doyle to show their attacking ability. In truth the back row had superb tacklers in Stanley Hadden and Paul Boyle and Kilkenny never managed a line break in the entire game. The pack was almost as dominant in the line out so it was only in the turn over area that Kilkenny manage to profit.

The back line of Arron Davies , Kevin Harrington, Joe Gardiner, John Roche, Nicholas Kearns, Sam Kennedy and full back Ian Maguire tackled all day and fielded any ball
kicked their way . They were unlucky to see a number of attacks fail due to some handling errors.

In fact it was Gorey who dominated the second half and managed another impressive pack worked score from the enthusiastic Achiella Kinsella. He managed to kick his own conversion to leave Gorey up by 12 point to 0. The four subs Jack O' Hagen , Conor Butler , Dave Bourke and Lee Farrell Mc Cabe all came on and played a significant part in the fine win. It was also appropriate the injured Ryan Mc Carthy got a medal for his commitment throughout the year.

The win now puts a hoodoo to bed and the hope is the team can continue to improve and maybe bring home more silver wear in the future The squad included Achiella Kinsella, Jack Byrne, Daniel Keogh, Darragh Bellanova, Declan Wildes (Capt), Stanley Haden, Ross Doyle, Paul Boyle, Arran Davies, Kevin Harrington, Sam Kennedy, Joe Gardiner, John Roche, Nicholas Kearns, Ian Maguire, Jack O' Hagen, Lee Farrel Mc Cabe, Conor Butler, David Bourke.