Gorey Under 19s defeat local rivals to win first round of Darcy Cup

The first round of the Darcy Cup threw up a local derby clash as Gorey Rfc travelled to Enniscorthy Rfc on Sunday 2^nd February to play their local rivals.

The game had been moved from the previous day to facilitate Enniscorthy’s senior team’s final in the All Ireland Junior Cup, which they won. This probably was to the advantage of both teams, as the weather conditions on Sunday were much more favourable to a game of rugby than the torrential rain of the previous day. There was however a very strong wind, which favoured the home team in the first half.

Gorey had beaten their rivals on the last number of meetings in both the Leinster and the South East Leagues, but this was cup rugby and both teams knew that anything could happen on a cup day.

Enniscorthy kicked-off with the wind, which was fumbled by Gorey and gave the home team immediate advantage. They continued to pile the pressure on Gorey and pinned them in their own 22 for the opening sequences. This strong pressure from Enniscorthy eventually resulted in a penalty, which they slotted over after 10 minutes to go 3 – 0 in front.

Gorey began to come back into the Game and pushed Enniscorthy back into their own half. A strong break by second row Josh White almost resulted in them getting over the line, but staunch defence by Enniscorthy kept them out.

Gorey continued to put together some nice back line moves finally releasing their front row player J.J. Earle who felt he had certainly got over for Gorey’s first try – only to be judged to have been held up.  The resulting 5 metre scrum allowed scrum-half Chris Martin to demonstrate his excellent handling skills, as he juggled the ball to release Gorey Captain Donnchadh Carroll to burst over for Gorey first try after 25 minutes.  The score now Enniscorthy 3 Gorey 5.

The wind prevented Gorey out-half Micheál O’Scannáil’s conversion from going over as it swirled back to catch the upright.

But just ten minutes later, as Gorey continued to threaten the Enniscorthy line, O’Scannáil drop back into the pocket, received the ball and slotted over a perfect drop goal to put Gorey 3 – 8 in front.

This is how the half ended and Gorey should have felt happy to be going into the second half in front, having played against a very strong wind for the first half.

Enniscorthy started the second half strongly, putting Gorey under pressure, which once again resulted in a penalty in front of the posts, which they slotted over to reduce the deficit to just two points; 6  - 8.

With only a two point gap between the teams it was anyone’s game, as both sides played some good rugby.

There was nothing to separate these two teams until ten minutes from full time when Gorey were awarded a scrum on the half-way line, which was passed out to replacement James Nolan, who show a moment of inspiration worthy of the great BOD himself, as he danced around several Enniscorthy players and finally chipped over the final defender to catch the ball and run over for a deserved match-winning try.

Once again, the conversion proved impossible in the windy conditions. And Gorey went into the final stage of the game leading 6 – 13.

Gorey continued to threaten the Enniscorthy line, but the referee blew it up shortly afterwards to see Gorey go through to the next round of this cup competition.

Both teams will have felt that they could have produced more, but the conditions didn’t help matters.

For Gorey’s part they will be looking to learn from this encounter as they look forward to quarter-final in this competition.