Coleraine produced a dominating display of rugby when Dromore came to town on Saturday, winning 36-9 and picking up a bonus point into the bargain.
\nIt was a reversal of the defeat in October at Dromore and Richard Kernohan\u2019s men made no major errors as they stamped their authority on proceedings this time round. They took the lead early on and in the second half secured a valuable bonus point, closing the gap to fifth placed Portadown to one point.
\nThe squad will be bolstered by the performance and it will give them some confidence as they meet league topping Clogher Valley on Tuesday, 28 February, in a rearranged fixture to be played under lights at Coleraine. The coach has targeted this match as an opportunity to show the strength of the side which so nearly took victory in Tyrone earlier in the season.
\nOn Saturday Coleraine took an early lead when David Andrews popped the ball to Brian Cochrane just into the Dromore 22 on 14 minutes. He cut a great line through the Dromore defence and scored under the posts. Andrews converted to give a 7-0 lead.
\nTen minutes later Cochrane again scored. A period of strong Coleraine forward play brought them close to the line. With the defence tied up the ball moved swiftly out to Cochrane on an overlap and he scored in the corner. The conversion was just wide.
\nDromore were not cowed. Five minutes later they fought their way inside the Coleraine 22 and Stewart was on target with the first of three penalties in the latter part of the first half.
\nThe visitors kept up the pressure and two further forays into Coleraine territory yielded penalties, one converted by Stewart and another from the half way line converted by Steenson. The score at the break was 12-9 to Coleraine.
\nWithin three minutes of the restart Coleraine scored again. A concerted Coleraine attack again set the scene for the ball to cross the backline, setting up Alan Gourley for a score in the corner. The conversion was just off target.
\nEight minutes into the half Coleraine were again encamped on the Dromore lines. From a five metre scrum Kenny Calladine picked and drove over the line to score, again unconverted.
\nWith ten minutes left Calladine again scored as he forced his way over the line from a lineout deep in Dromore territory. Andrews claimed the extras.
\nFive minutes later Niall Irwin made a spirited break through the Dromore defence, popped the ball to David Ferguson as he was tackled, setting the hooker up for a score under the posts. Andrews converted bringing the final score to Coleraine 36 Dromore 9.
\nIn a final twist to the game a bemused Andrews was yellow carded with only a few minutes to go, after a Coleraine infringement and some discussion with the referee.
\nIn the end it was a good day for Coleraine and the side are now looking forward to next Tuesday\u2019s encounter with Clogher Valley, kick off 7.45pm. There is no game for the Firsts this weekend.
\nThe Seconds had no game at the weekend, the opposition pitch being waterlogged. This weekend, 25 February, they take on Bangor Seconds in the Crawford Cup, at home, a match well worth supporting, so some along, lend your support and enjoy a great game.
\nIn the only other game at the weekend Coleraine Thirds lost out to Bangor Seconds 12-16.
\nColeraine First XV: S Jefferson, D Ferguson, M Hunter, W Hunt, P Bogle (Stirling), S Dickey, A Neely, K Calladine, S Simpson, G Jordan (Van Wyk), A Gourley, D Andrews, D Orr, N Irwin, B Cochrane. Subs: A Stirling, T Van Wyk<\/p>\n
Match Stats<\/strong><\/p>\n Starting team<\/p>\n 1 Stephen Jefferson Subs Played<\/p>\n 16 A Stirling Coleraine produced a dominating display of rugby when Dromore came to town on Saturday, winning 36-9 and picking up a bonus point into the bargain. It was a reversal of the defeat in October at Dromore and Richard Kernohan\u2019s men made no major errors as they stamped their authority on proceedings this time round. They […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[450,501],"tags":[6856,5938,17234,17239,4275,5304,5816,4281],"class_list":["post-22489","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-coleraine","category-dromore","tag-6856","tag-5938","tag-coleraine","tag-dromore","tag-i","tag-notes","tag-rfc","tag-xv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intouchrugby.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22489","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intouchrugby.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intouchrugby.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intouchrugby.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intouchrugby.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22489"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.intouchrugby.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22489\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22490,"href":"https:\/\/www.intouchrugby.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22489\/revisions\/22490"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intouchrugby.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22489"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intouchrugby.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22489"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intouchrugby.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22489"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n2 David Ferguson
\n3 Mark Hunter
\n4 Peter Bogle
\n5 William Hunt
\n6 Stephen Dickey
\n7 Andrew Neeley
\n8 Kenny Calliden
\n9 Stuart Simpson
\n10 Greg Jordan
\n11 Nial Irwin
\n12 David Andrews
\n13 David Orr
\n14 Alan Gourley
\n15 Brian Cochrane <\/p>\n
\n17 Tommy Van Wyk
\nScore summary
\nTime\tPlayer\tScore
\n5\tBrian Cochrane\tTry
\n6\tDavid Andrews\tConversion
\n15\tBrian Cochrane\tTry
\n45\tAlan Gourley\tTry
\n55\tKenny Calliden\tTry
\n60\tKenny Calliden\tTry
\n61\tDavid Andrews\tConversion
\n70\tDavid Ferguson\tTry
\n71\tDavid Andrews\tConversion<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"