City rivals Corinthians hit hard by yellow cards as they let half time advantage slip in dour struggle

NOT since the heady days of 2001, under the guidance of current Harlequins coach John Kingston, have Galwegians occupied such a high standing in the Ulster Bank All Ireland League. Thanks to their Friday night derby win over Corinthians at Cloonacauneen, the sky blues sit in first place in Division 1b after six rounds of action.

A haul of 25 points from a possible 30 is about as good a start as they could have hoped for considering that they only gained promotion back into the second tier last season, lost the coach that guided them there, Cory Brown, and have suffered a succession of injuries to key forwards.

New coach Matt Brown has come in and seamlessly kept the momentum flowing. They came into Friday’s game off the back of a last gasp home loss to Ballymena and in an encounter that never took flight and was error strewn throughout, Wegians had all the answers for their old foes in a strong second half comeback to get back on top.

A home loss by Ballymena against Malone on Saturday left them two points behind Galwegians in the standings in the race for the one promotion spot. Of course, this is only round six of 18 and the first half of the season is mainly about establishing a foothold, but the Crowley Park side are doing that and more.

This was only the second All Ireland League city derby since 1997. The first in 2012 had a familiar storyline to this one where a sense of frozen fear enveloped both sides making for a poor spectacle. That day, it was about the Leader brothers, precise long range goal kicking from Darragh and a memorable try from Tadhg on a clever blind side move. That left us with a 31-13 scoreline despite Corinthians scoring two tries to their hosts one.

The try count was reversed on Friday in the first of two meetings this year (the return fixture is on Friday, February 27. David Panter swept through the cover to score the first half try for Corinthians with the wind at their packs. Ultan Dillane’s charge had made the score and it made for a 10-0 half time lead.

Galwegians had had most of the play, but five visits to the Corinthians 22 had yielded nothing, touch finders from penalties didn’t find the target, two drilled kicks at goal into the wind from replacement ten Ross Shaughnessy dropped wide and, somehow, the home side managed a penalty count that was at least four to one against them.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Sentinel.