A great result for the 1st XV on Saturday as they beat their fierce rivals Strabane to remain unbeaten in the league this season. Letterkenny were boosted by the return of Andrew Gibson, Conor Ronyane and Shane McArt but this was offset by the loss of Liam McGlynn, Jason Daly, Paul Cassidy and David Doherty leaving the Donegal team with a horrendous injury list and real selection headaches The newcomers this week were George Greer, Mark Timoney and Brendan Maxwell all making their first start of the season and all three performed strongly and contributed to a fine game of rugby.
Yet again Letterkenny started the game strongly and a series of quick rucks and drives by the forwards left space on the left for the backs to run into and only a miss pass in midfield spoiled a clear overlap however Sean Deery still made ground up the left touchline and it took an illegal shoulder to stop him from opening the scoring. Unfortunately the Letterkenny lineout was experiencing some problems and this prevented the home side from driving home the territorial advantage they enjoyed for much of the first half, however Strabane did cough up a penalty 30 meters out and Tony McBride landed a tricky 3 pointer. Then a break from out half Michael Turvey was carried on by Karl Egan and his pass to Conor Dunleavy seemed to have put the big second row in under the posts but the ball squirted out of his hands and the opportunity was lost. There was no further score in the first half with Strabane missing a penalty from 40 meters.
The second half started much the same as the first with Tony McBride keeping Strabane pinned in their own half with some clever tactical kicking and Letterkennys line speed and aggression in the tackle not allowing the away team any sustained possession. In one attempt to run out of their half the letterkenny press defence caused a ball to spill in the tackle and Andrew Gibson gathered the loose ball and was caught just short of the Strabane line, he placed the ball perfectly while under extreme pressure and this allowed the supporting Karl Egan to gather and force his way over for the try. Conversion missed. Even though there was still 25 minutes to go it felt like this might be the decisive score such was the strength of the Letterkenny defence. Credit to Strabane they dominated possession for the next 20 minutes and put the Donegal men under serious pressure, however massive tackles by Michael Turvey, Conal Sheridan and Andrew Gibson in particular kept them at bay and in truth a try for the away side never looked on the cards. The last 5 minutes was spent in the Strabane 22 and despite problems in the scrum and line-out Letterkenny did enough for a richly deserved victory.
Special mention to all the players who have stepped up to the 1st XV over the last couple of weeks, they have been magnificent. On the day Andrew Gibson was outstanding in both attack and defence and Mark Scott got through a huge amount of work with ball in hand and even threw in a nice dummy on one occasion. Terence Gallagher also had his best game for Letterkenny replacing the irreplaceable Liam McGlynn and its clear all the work with Adam Speer is paying off. Thanks to all the supporters from both clubs who came down and made a great atmosphere and we hope you enjoyed the game which was hard and uncompromising but played in great spirit.
Letterkenny:
15. Tony McBride 14.Sean Deery 13.John Anthony McFadden 12.Andrew Gibson 11.George Greer 10.Michael Turvey 9.Conal Sheridan 8.Mark Scott 7.Terence Gallagher 6.Shane McArt 5.Conor Dunleavy 4.Brendan Maxwell 3.Conor Ronyane 2.Karl Egan(c) 1.Mark Timoney
In other news Damien and Derek got the plasters off on Friday and we hope it wont be too long before we see them in a Letterkenny shirt again. Brian hopes to have his operation soon and Rory is continuing the rehab on his neck by eating chips. Next up its away to High School on the 15th followed by the Christmas party! Details to follow.
