Wegians young guns too classy for brave Loughrea rivals

Date Published: 02-Apr-2012

Galwegians 23

Loughrea 11

Rob Murphy

SUNDAY’S final at Connacht rugby headquarters had everything one could hope for from a Heineken Junior Cup showdown. A big crowd of close to 2,000 turned up at the College Road venue and helped create a hair-raising atmosphere that was befitting of the quality of rugby and the commitment of both teams.

Galwegians’ young guns had the firepower and ultimately proved too strong for a Loughrea side that were playing in a Division below their opponents this season, but showed no signs of any such disparity.

The newly promoted East Galway men, in fact, demonstrated why they belong amongst the elite clubs in the province with a stirring second half comeback that had their vociferous supporters bouncing with excitement. Darren Griffin’s try truly was a memorable score, but we’ll get to that anon.

The first half may well be where this game was won. Galwegians were methodical in their score taking and while they’ll feel that they never got to flow in the same way that they had done on a ten game winning streak since November, the city men can be satisfied with way the withstood Loughrea’s early onslaught.

Right from the kick off, Loughrea were hounding their opponents at the breakdown forcing a turnover immediately and bringing about the first huge roar of the day. The next five minutes saw them win a penalty and set a platform in the 22 which led to a Stephen Creaven drop goal that missed by millimeters.

Galwegians were duly alerted to the Loughrea threat and their response was an example of why this young side, with 11 under 21s, has a maturity that belies such a statistic. It’s instilled by coach John Folan and guided by the likes Ross Shaughnessy, Sean Egan and David Clarke.

Clarke and Shaughnessy got the scorers over the next 20 minutes as the sky blues built up a lead. Enniscrone man Clarke kicked a long range penalty before adding a drop goal and then Shaugnessy got in on the act with a drop kick of his own for a 9-0 lead on 26 mintues.

Five minutes shy of half time, Clarke made a scything break in the centre and when tackled, he won the penalty as the Loughrea players failed to roll away. That allowed the former Cistercian Roscrea centre extend his side’s lead.

Loughrea had to answer and they did almost immediately through the boot of Stephen Creaven after good work from Willie Cullinane and Mark Mullins among others in the build up play.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Sentinel.