The Inishowen lads had a journey to Rainey RFC in Magherafelt on Saturday to play the old club rivals Malone in the Ulster U13’s Bowl Final competition.
Team captain Liam Barr got off to a good start by winning the toss and decided to let Malone kick-off. The first 5 mins were pretty tight with both teams testing each other out. Inishowen were up quick in defence and outstanding tackling from Ciaran McEleney and Enda Callaghan stopped Malone in their tracks. Malone won an Inishowen scrum and flashed the ball out to their winger who scored under the posts and converted. 7-0 to Malone, Inishowen upped their game and played a lot of good rugby but an easily turned over ball allowed Malone to score in the corner, 12 -0 . Near the end of the 1st half, Inishowen received a penalty outside their 22. A quick tap off and pass to centre Lee McDaid who out sprinted all of the Malone players resulted in the first score which he then converted, 12-7.
Early in the second half Inishowen gave away a penalty which the Malone No. 10 calmly slotted between the posts leaving the score 15 – 7. The lnishowen team battled on but the Malone defence was well structured and in the last five minutes the final blow came with the Malone No. 12 running in at the corner once again – failed to convert. Final score Malone 20 – Inishowen 7. Thanks to all the hard work the players put in over the season and coaching staff who helped out on the day especially John Merrit, Gregg Bryon, Adrain Thompson and Brian McNally. Best of luck to the U15’s and U17’s who both travel to Lurgan this Saturday for quarter final matches.
Team (as in photo) BR: Dylan Doherty, Darragh Kearney, Ciaran McEleney, Tiarnan Stevens, Darren Fitzpatrick, Liam Gallagher, Niall Kelly, Enda Callaghan, Lee McDaid , Fergal Monagle and Brian McNally (team coach). FR: Conor Callaghan, Oisin McGonigle, Sean Murray, Conor Quigley, Dan McGonigle, Liam Barr, Padraig McCarron, Shay Bonner, Ruaidhri McCarron and Conleth Mullan.
