BUCCANEERS 10 GALWAY CORINTHIANS 10
Buccaneers U-16s pursued their quest for the Connacht League title at a stormy Loughrea on Saturday where Corinthians stood in their way. Last year’s league and cup winners were not going to roll over easily and two evenly matched squads could not be separated on a 10-10 scoreline.
Buccs played against the wind and showers in the first half and started slowly. After 10 minutes of pressure the Galway side scored a converted try but this seemed to wake Buccs up and they gave as good as they got for the rest of the half. The only other score was a close-in penalty which gave Corinthians a 10-0 lead as the teams went inside at the break.
Buccs played much better in the second half with Adam Murphy and Peter Sunny making strong runs but the Athlonians struggled to get the ball into the opposition 22 where the Corinthians defence was solid. But Myles Fallon forced his way over for a try following a lineout and Darragh Murray added the conversion.
With time running out Buccs pack maintained their hard work and a relieving kick into the Corinthians half plus some good following-up play forced a penalty near the posts which Murray cooly converted to level the scores just before the full-time whistle.
Overall this was a hard-working all-round effort by the young Pirates against the holders. Buccs must now prepare for the replay knowing they conceded too many penalties for high tackles in the first encounter and need to employ more variation in attack to be victorious in the replay, which could be refixed for this coming weekend.
BUCCANEERS:- E.Carr; C.Bertomeu, E.Friel, J.Finnan, Cillian Donohoe; D.Murray, S.Lowe; M.Doolan, C.McCormack, P.D.Sunny; T.Herron, S.O’Hara; N.Robinson, M.Fallon and A.Murphy. Replacements:- Chris Donohoe, C.Sylla, A.Costello, C.Doran, H.Lowe, S.Ribaut, J.B. Rodriguez de Lievana, V.M. Gimenez Rello, R.Hughes and R.O’Connor.
