17th April 2013 

Gorey Under 15s Beat Enniscorthy

It was a wild night of intermittent rain combined with very windy and blustery conditions that welcomed the men of Enniscorthy to the home of Gorey Rugby in Clonattin for the semi-final of the Leinster U15 league.

The game was played under floodlights on Wednesday last, 17 April. The home sides’ first fifteen was led onto the field by their Captain and leading try scorer to date, Mark Hoare.

During the pre match warm up both Mark and his counterpart, Captain Billy Wickham from Enniscorthy had very obviously ordered their men to employ ground based tactics as the prevailing weather conditions would have a severe effect on any ball launched skyward. The match referee, Kevin Bolger, had advised both squads that he was aware of the conditions and urged them to play the whistle and the advantage.

The first few Gorey probing attacks were, as predicted, defended with great intensity and much credit must go to their kicker, Adam Daly, who showed remarkable accuracy under severe pressure. But as the game progressed, cracks began to appear in a defence that had been well prepared by Enniscorthy managers Paddy Farrell and John Redmond. Finally on the 14th minute, Niall Sinnott exploded from the trenches, breached the line and touched down under the posts, for the first time this year. He made life easy for kicker Cian Hadden who converted to bring his club tally to over one hundred points this season. The roar of Gorey’s crowd was deafening.

The on field leader, Mark Hoare followed this on the 19th minute with a 40 meter tackle busting charge up the left flank for a fine individual try and as the clock ran down, second row forward, Conor Mangan, dazzled with a fantastic side step and went over to close out the first half with Gorey leading by nineteen points to nil.

Having found the range and adjusted for wind, Gorey set their collective sights on an emphatic victory in front of their home crowd and within ten minutes of the start of the second half, Jack Willoughby and Barry Doyle scored tries of their own in quick succession. Indeed it was the power and leg strength of Doyle that resulted in many of the Gorey turnovers. Lineouts were a problem all night for both hookers who had to work hard to earn their corn, as time and time again, penalties were given away for the ball not being put in straight. In a replica move from the first half, Mark Hoare again covered 40 meters to score on the thirteenth minute. It didn’t all go Gorey’s way but lady luck was certainly on their side.

Luke Willoughby came within touching distance of the line himself, and the huge tackle that put paid to him saw the ball fall nicely for Oscar Falconer, again running selflessly in support, who slid in under the uprights.
From the back of one scrum on the Gorey 22, Hadden delivered a clearance kick which was chased down by sprint specialist Lucas Stafford who put the Enniscorthy full back under enormous pressure. As a result of some fantastic support running, Oscar Falconer found himself as the proverbial right man in the right place, snatched up the loose ball and pumped the legs to drive himself and two stalwart defenders over the line to add a second try to his tally.

Such was the power of the wind on the night that most of the conversions were drop kicked as the ball was blown off the kicking tee. As the Gorey management, Brian Willoughby and James Tomkins, made changes and emptied the bench. The great form shown by the fresh legs continued the misery for Enniscorthy, who brought on replacements of their own in an attempt to stem the flow but the wounds inflicted by Gorey were deep.

As the second half progressed, Hoare, Hurley, Hilliard and Hadden combined beautifully with great hands. H Troop were on the move. Replacement Jamie Doyle was the last man in this unusual line-up and got over near the corner flag. His effort was converted by fullback Jack Willoughby, who, always in the thick of the action, shortly afterwards added a well deserved second try to his collection.

Enniscorthy coach Benny Daly roared words of encouragement to his charges from the side line but there was too much to do with so little time. Following a massive tackle from a fired up combination of James Hilliard, and Michael Wafer, Enniscorthy suffered a major set back on the twenty sixth minute as their big number 6, David Doyle, who had given his all for his club on a very difficult evening, was assisted from the field.

Dale Rothwell, who came on for David Bailey in the closing minutes put in some surging diagonal runs, one of which made headway and on the twenty ninth minute, he too clocked up a try of his own.

In the final analysis, Enniscorthy, who had put it up to Gorey successfully many times in the past, simply had too many of their class players missing and they unfortunately but gracefully bowed out, beaten sixty one points to nil.

As always the captain and his crew on the under 15 panel would like to express their gratitude to their management and coaching staff, parents and friends who travelled in support and especially the Gorey reception committee who provided refreshments to both squads.

The squad consisted of;

1 Jack Cushe
2 Reece Hughes
3 Barry Doyle (Try)
4 Conor Mangan (Try)
5 David Bailey
6 Niall Sinnott (Try)
7 Chris Bolger
8 Mark Hoare, Capt (2 Tries)
9 Seamus Tomkins
10 Cian Hadden (2 Conv)
11 Lucas Stafford
12 Oscar Falconer (2 Tries)
13Will Hurley
14 Daniel Sawyer
15 Jack Willoughby (2 Tries, 1 Conv)

Replacements

Conor Fitzpatrick for B Doyle
Patrick Sinnott for J Cushe
Ben D’Arcy for R Hughes
Luke Willoughby for W Hurley
Jamie Doyle (Try) for D Sawyer
Garry Walshe for L Stafford
Cian Fortune for O Falconer
Dale Rothwell (Try) for D Bailey
James Hilliard for M Hoare
Michael Wafer for C Bolger
Robbie Brooks for N Sinnott

Injured: Ciaran Murphy