GOREY U17s WIN AGAIN
 
Gorey U17s travelled to Wicklow on Saturday 29th September for what they knew would be a tough game against a team that always prove to be very strong.
 
An indication of how seriously Gorey took this game was evident in their warm up, where big tackles were going in and no punches pulled. Unfortunately, such was the intensity that Gorey had their first casualty at this warm up stage, as Kevin Harrington suffered a fractured leg after putting a crunching tackle on one of Gorey's largest forwards. Kevin's input would be greatly missed in the game, but his team mates were determined to ensure that they came away with the right result for him and Kevin stayed for the entire game to witness an inspired performance from his team.
 
The game started at a high tempo and it wasn't long before Stanley Hayden put his mark on the game with a super try after he broke off from a scrum in Wicklow's 22. The notorious wind at Wicklow made it a very difficult day for kicking and Cathal O'Neill's attempt at the conversion fell just left of the posts to leave the score at 5 - 0 after just five minutes.
 
Wickow had some great bouts of play after this and displayed the Superior rucking, but they couldn't convert this into points, as Gorey's defence proved to be impenetrable.
 
It took Stanley Hayden once again to trouble the score keeper as he went on a solo run to get his second try of the day five minutes later.
 
Gorey were at full throttle now, but Wicklow weren't prepared to roll over and they made things very difficult for the visitors with some great Wicklow scrummaging and once again fantastic work at the ruck.
 
However, Cathal Kinsella soon burst through their defence with one of his trademark tries after 27 minutes, which Cathal O'Neill converted to leave the score now at 17 - 0 to Gorey.
 
To their great credit Wicklow never gave up and it only took them another few minutes to reply with a well worked try for Jonathan Hopkins just before the half time whistle, which they failed to convert.
 
Half time score; Wicklow 5   Gorey 17.
 
The second half didn't take long to get firing with Darrick Garz getting over for a fine try just eight minutes in, again the wind scuppered any chances of conversion.
 
Some great play followed by both teams. with Wicklow camped on Gorey's try line for almost ten minutes, but came away empty handed as Gorey showed incredibly well organised defence, where many teams would have panicked.
 
Some fantastic work by Gorey forwards Darragh Bellanova and Zach Sinnott ensured Gorey made steady progress into Wicklow territory, which paid off with two fine tries by Paul Boyle to cap a brilliant performance by the Number 8.
 
Final Score : Wicklow 5  Gorey 32.