Away victory for Tullamore

LEINSTER LEAGUE DIVISION 1 MONKSTOWN 8 TULLAMORE 15 Tullamore seem to be keeping their best performances for away matches and last Sunday proved the point with this terrific win over former AIL club Monkstown. A display full of commitment and determination with no small amount of skill on a very difficult playing surface won the day and kept Tullamore in 3rd position in this league. With leaders Navan losing it is still possible to win the league with two games remaining. It is also mathematically possible to finish outside the top 8, so tight and competitive is this league. While winning the league is unlikely, finishing in the top 8 is almost assured and the goal is to finish in the top three and thus qualify for both the Leinster Senior League Cup in September and the hugely popular All-Ireland Junior Cup for 2010. Tullamore started this game in the right frame of mind and attacked the home side from the off. The underfoot conditions and the wind made passing and running rugby difficult but the visitors soon adapted. On 8 minutes the ball was moved at speed across the back line and Colin Hughes found himself in space 40 metres out. He rounded his man with pace and raced to score under the posts. Gearoid O"Grady had no difficulty with the conversion. It took Monkstown 28 minutes to get into the visitors" 22 but when they did so they were awarded a penalty under the posts, which they kicked. Tullamore had a player sin binned for coming in from the side of a ruck near the line but somehow Monkstown missed the resulting penalty. This left Tullamore leading 7-3 at half-time. Being a player short for the first ten minutes of the second half nearly cost Tullamore and Monkstown almost pushed the visiting pack over the line from a five-metre scrum. Their were other close calls with players being stopped close to the line but eventually Monkstown conceded a penalty to lift the siege. Following some pressure Tullamore were awarded a penalty after 14 minutes and, in spite of the worsening underfoot conditions, Gearoid kicked the penalty. Monkstown showed their determination by pinning Tullamore in their own half for 10 minutes and eventually broke through for a try to narrow the gap to two points. The last fifteen minutes were all about who had the greater will to win and that was the visitors. With 5 minutes to go Gearoid kicked to the 22 and Colin Hughes won the race to the ball and put in a perfect grubber kick to the try line and Gearoid, following up, was first to the line and grounded the ball for a try to win the game. Colin Hughes had a great game in attack while Gearoid"s contribution of 10 points was vital. Aaron Deverell did some great work in the centre and Derek Farrell played the game to suit the conditions. On a bad surface it"s the forwards that win this type of battle and they all contributed, none more so than the durable Donal Milne but the Print Plus man of the match goes to Rob Connor who was everywhere and gave an outstanding display. TEAM: 15. Richie Hughes, 14. Mark Whelan, 13. Ivor Scully, 12. Aaron Deverell, 11. Colin Hughes, 10. Gearoid O"Grady, 9. Derek Farrell, 1. Ronan Glennon, 2. Cian Glennon, 3. Alvin Bracken, 4. Donal Milne, 5. Dave Hanlon, 6. Cathal Feighery, 7. Rob Connor, 8. Polonga Pedro. Replacements used: Andy Melville, Cian O"Sullivan. *Next weekend there are no games as the 1st round of the Newstalk Provincial Towns Cup is on and Tullamore have a bye. The U-20s are free and have their final league match the following Sunday against UCD. TULLAMORE RUGBY CLUB VALENTINE"S BALL FRIDAY 13th Feb. Tickets available from Ray Farrell at 087 1219574 or Dave Phillips at 086 8552376.