Old Christians RFC

Old Christians 31 vs Ballincollig 0

Ballincollig, 12:00PM

Ballincollig 0 Old Christians 31
This was a must win league game today and win we certainly did. The game was only 6 mins old when the home outhalf went to kick to touch. Paddy Walsh launched himself through the air and blocked the kick. Kieran Ware was first to react, grabbed the ball and waltzed over. Conor Mangan added the points and he kicked a penalty a couple of mins later for a 10-0 lead.
While we did look dangerous, with the ball in hand, we did not score again untill the 34th min. This time it was the "burly citizans" as Bill Mc Claren used to say, who did all the work. A couple of drives near the Ballincollig line and we eventually drove over for the touch down. The ever improving Peter Twohig was credited with the try, Again Conor Mangan converted, this time from the touch line, for a 17-0 half time lead.
We were now facing a strong cold wind, but we opened well and a great break by Noel Finneran almost yielded a try. With 20 mins gone however, the home side hit a purple patch. They forced a couple of penalties 5 metres out, but from the second of these, Paddy Walsh tackled the ball carrier and drove his back 10 metres.
Ballincollig came again but a last man tackle by Kieran Ware snuffed out the danger.
Two mins later it was game over. Brian Mangan won a line out in our own 22, Conor Mangan and John Flynn linked up to send Kevin Gilmartin away for the touch down, which was again converted by Conor Mangan.
A second Kieran Ware try, again converted by Conor Mangan gave us the bonus point and a 31-0 result.
I consulted some of the "experts" after the game, wondering who they though was "man of the match", (this is a very democratic web site), and I got 4/5 different answers. This I suppose only proves that it was a great TEAM performance with eveyone giving their all.

Lán Chúl


Backline in full flight.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Brian Mangan soaring high.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Donnacha get the ball away.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Pressure on our line.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Ball off the top of the lineout.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Conor Mangan knocks another kick over.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


The Ref's hand goes up to signal a try for Peter Twohig.
=============================================================================