Corrib Water Polo ClubÕs U-16 team complete the Irish Cup three-in-a-row

Date Published: 28-Feb-2013

CORRIB Water Polo Club achieved the three-in-a-row of Irish National Cup victories at boys U16 level in Lisburn in recent weeks.

The Galway city club had two teams in the competition. Corrib A met arch-rivals St Vincent’s in their first group game. Corrib played a press game in this clash which provided planety of space in the hole for Cillian Colvin who scored three goals.

With one minute to go, it was five goals apiece when a defensive mistake allowed St Vincent’s sneak a goal for a 5-6 victory for the Dublin team. Corrib A next met Setanta (Belfast) in the second group game and easily dispatched the northerners 11-3 paving the way for a quarter-final clash against Clonard who hail from the other end of the Falls Road.

This game proved to be a tight affair with the half-time score 3-3. Corrib switched to a drop defence in the second half which closed down the Clonard attack successfully and allowed Corrib space in their attack. With this change, they held Clonard scoreless for the rest of game and tagged on three more goals to close out the tie 6-3.

Corrib B opened their tournament against an up and coming Clontarf team. In a tight and closely fought game, they finally ran out 7-5 winners over the Dubliners. The game showed the skills of some of the Corrib’s emerging talent such as Mark Moran, Davey Knight, Lorcan Gavin and Peter Crotty.

This result set Corrib B up for a quarter-final game against Cathal Brugha (Belfast), one of the oldest clubs in the country and the holders of most U-16 titles in the competition’s 40 year history.

The game was extremely tight but was finally sealed by a stunning goal from Davey Knight, who drove in from the left corner and received an inch perfect pass from Felipe Amaya, sticking it in the top corner of the goal. That was followed shortly by a wonderful lob from Mark Moran from about 10m out on the right side. A stunned Cathal Brugha in front of the home crowd had to accept defeat a 7-5 defeat in one of the games of the tournament.

This set up a semi-final between Corrib A and Corrib B which was a great display of the strength of the Corrib squad. Corrib A ran out winners to face St Vincent’s in the final and ending a fantastic tournament for Corrib B all of whom are eligible to play at U16 again next year.

In the final, Corrib coaches Joe Smyth and Barry Heskin decided to play a drop defence having learned from the first round game of the dangers of a press defence against the ultra-mobile St Vincent’s squad. This paid off early with Corrib scoring the first two goals from Evan Naughton and hole-forward Conor Treacy.

But despite stout defence from Daragh Keady and Joseph Tummons, St Vincent’s had come back into the game by half-time. They scored two goals with Corrib captain Keelan Ward adding a third to end the first half 3-2.

For more, read this week’s Galway City Tribune.