Gorey J1s Lose Narrowly To Kilkenny

After the getting off to a great start the previous week with an away victory over Clane, Gorey welcomed Kilkenny to Clonattin for their first home fixture of the Leinster League campaign.  On a cracking night for rugby, Gorey  were first out of the blocks  with an Aidan O Brien penalty as they dominated the early exchanges.

But this was short lived as Kilkenny replied with a penalty of their own. From then until halftime it was all Gorey with the home pack in great form. They moved the ball with confidence and from consistent pressure No. 12 Matt Batter cut through the Kilkenny defence for an inside pass to winger Killian Breen who ran over to touch down under the posts for Aidan O Brien to convert.

Gorey kept the pressure up with Adrian Copeland and Michael Woods leading the line, it was not long until the Kilkenny defence was breached again with Ben Horan going over under the posts to leave a healthy 17 - 3 lead. Kilkenny added a penalty to leave the scores at 17 - 6 at the break.

This was a game of two halves as the second period saw Kilkenny coming more into the game, but they found Gorey hard to breakdown. The home team gave away a few cheap penalties and suddenly found themselves defending their try line, Kilkenny finally got over for a dubious try as their No 8 looked to have knocked on before he touched down.  But the game was to take a dramatic turn on the twentieth minute as Gorey were reduced to 13 men within minutes, with two yellow cards. This put Gorey at a distinct disadvantage but they fought tooth and nail for every ball. Eventually the pressure told when the Kilkenny winger went in under the posts to leave the score to Kilkenny at 18 - 17. The kick off saw Gorey again under pressure but a kick by fullback Sean Kinnane saw the Kilkenny winger race down the line to be met with a crunch tackle from Killian Breen the ball bounced into the on running Kinnane's arms for him to run from the halfway line to score a fantastic try, Aidan O Brien was just inches wide with the conversion. With the lead retained Gorey looked to put the game to bed but two kickable penalties were to cost them dearly as the visitors finished the game 24 - 22 to take the points.

Gorey had some good performances in the pack with Darragh O Leary, Ben Horan and Michael Woods showing well. Matt Batter, Killian Breen and Phil Furney were the pick of the backs.

Gorey travel to Mullingar next week.

GOREY : T Tomkins, B OConnor, C Smith, D O Leary,  N O'Loughlin, A. Copeland, P Horan,  A O'Brien, PJ Clince, K Breen, M Batter, Capt. P Furney,  C Furney,  S Kinnane,  C Hennessy,  E Warren, B Horan,  E Warren, W Peavoy.