UBL Division 2A
Nenagh Ormond 38-24 Skerries
After a disappointing start to the season, Nenagh Ormond were hoping to get back on track with this home fixture against Skerries. Nenagh started with intent, putting pressure on Skerries straight away and got on the scoreboard early after a good kick to the corner from Mike Fogarty gave them a 5 metre attacking lineout. Nenagh set up a tight maul and drove over the line for Kevin Seymour to touch down. Jack Molamphy added the conversion to put Nenagh up by 7 points just minutes into the game.
Nenagh continued to dominate throughout the majority of the first half, in particular at scrum time. When they won a scrum on the Skerries 22 it was the perfect opportunity to attack. LemekiVaipulu picked from the back and passed to outhalfKolioHifo. Quick hands from Hifo and Willie O’Connor almost put Michael Walsh over in the corner but the defence stopped him mere inches short. A couple of quick, controlled phases put Fergal Brislane over the line but unfortunately the referee was on the wrong side of the ruck and Nenagh were forced to recycle play on. In the next phase, Nenagh were penalised for crossing and Skerries kicked their way out of trouble.
Nenagh must have been frustrated when their next score did not come for some time and they were reduced to fourteen half an hour in but, credit to them, they stuck with it and were rewarded when Hifo gave a lovely skip pass out to centre Derek Corcoran who broke up the left and into the 22. Support came from Michael Walsh and Jack Molamphy who secured possession in the ruck allowing Fogarty to pass to Hifo again on the move. Hifo powered through the defence to score and Molamphy again converted. Skerries did come back at Nenagh just before half time and when they were awarded a penalty within kicking distance they took their points to leave the half time score at 14-3 to the home side.
Skerries came out all guns blazing at the start of the second half and caught Nenagh napping, scoring a relatively soft try almost straight away to put them within 4 points. However, Nenagh were not about to concede their lead and worked hard for field position with Hifo again finishing off a good spell of possession with a well-taken try. Hifo added another try for a hat-trick which he converted himself and two more tries from Derek Corcoran, converted by Molamphy, and Michael Walsh put Nenagh 38-10 ahead and out of reach.
The effort put in during the course of the match was evident in the final ten minutes when Skerries scored two late tries but this didn’t take away from what was a much improved performance for Nenagh. The support in particular was obviously improved with players on hand and willing to ruck with aggression to retain possession. Nenagh will be hoping to keep this level of performance up for their next two fixtures, first away and then at home to Naas on December 5th& 12th.
Team: Jack Molamphy, John Long, Derek Corcoran, William O’Connor, Michael Walsh, KolioHifo, Mike Fogarty, Fergal Brislane, Peter O’Connor, Conor Brislane, Kevin O’Gorman, Kevin O’Flaherty, Kevin Seymour, Anthony Kavanagh, LemekiVaipulu. Reps: Aidan Doyle, Thomas McNamara, Andrew Mackey, Peter O’Leary, Mark Griffin.
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