21/10/2018 Leinster League Division 1B DSLP 29 Longford 34

by Tommy Butler Longford RFC PRO tommylbutler@gmail.com 

Longford secured a great bonus point win in a high scoring match versus De La Salle Palmerston in Kilternan today.  Both sides scored five tries but it was Longford who eventually ground out their third away of the season and also maintained their winning start to the league securing their fourth victory from four matches.

Like the week before the match started badly for Longford when they conceded an early try after five minutes to fall behind 5-0.  Longford struck back quickly with a well worked try by wing Joe McGowan to draw back the score to 5-5.

DLSP are a very enterprising side who play a dynamic offloading game and try to get the ball out to the wings at every opportunity.  It became clear on 16 minutes that for Longford to come away with a win that they would have to at least match their opponents in the try scoring stakes.

DLSP were next to score with a well worked try out wide to put them 10-5 in the lead.  However, Longford continued to hold their own against their fast moving opponents and it was Benny McManus who crashed over for Longford’s second try to put Longford into the lead for the first time 10-12.

DLSP continued their offloading game and moving the point of contact.  However, Longford continued to deal with nearly everything that was thrown at them.  Conversely, they will be disappointed about their amount of missed tackles compared to their first three matches.  The pressure they exerted eventually told just before half time when they went in for their third try on the stroke of half time to leave the score 15-12.

The second half started with a bang with both sides going for the jugular.  Longford clearly were galvanised by the half time talk as their tackling, carrying and rucking markedly improved in the second half.

Longford struck first via the boot of Ryan McHugh to peg the score back to even stephen; 15-15.  This was even though Longford were down to 14 men after having a man sent to the bin subsequent to some argy bargy.  For the first time this year Longford ended up on the wrong side of the score while being down to 14 men with DLSP running in their first converted try of the match to retake the lead 22-15.  However, the yellow card seemed to buck Longford into action as they brought their game to DLSP for the rest of the match.

Firstly, flanker Kieran O’Gorman crashed over for a converted try to draw Longford level again 22-22.  This was followed up a second try from Benny McManus after a sustained barrage on the home sides line to take the lead 22-29 and secure Longford a four try bonus point at minimum.

DLSP kept coming at Longford but their offloading type of rugby proved their undoing as substitute Ian McCormack was the first to react to a knock on by DLSP and raced away from the home defence to score Longford’s fifth try and stretch their lead out to 12 points; 22-34.  What was remarkable was that it was McCormack’s third try of the day, having ran in two tries for the Early XV in the 1.30 kick off.

DLSP kept coming at Longford and cut through for a another try to draw the score back to 29-34 with 5 minutes to go.  DLSP were clearly pushing to try and win the match.  However, Longford secured the ball and never relinquished it with a Munster style pick and carry close out that only could have impressed head coach, Glenn Baskett.

The Leinster League takes a break next weekend. Longford are in a great position after four games; securing four wins, including three away wins and two bonus points to lie second in the league, two points behind leaders Suttonians, who we have yet to play.   

Next up is one of our perennially tough opponents, Tullow who travel to CPL Park on Sunday November 4^th, kick offs moved back half an hour in November.  Early XV matches kick off at 1 PM and Late XV matches at 2.30 PM.  We would appreciate your support for a great squad who are training hard to be in the running for league honours at the end of the season.

Longford Squad: L Brady, P Dardis, D Quinn, B Stewart, B McManus, D Farrell, K O’Gorman, P Gallogly, N Farrell, R McHugh, J McGowan, C Glynn, S Rodgers, S McGuinness, S Flynn, J Forde, S Murphy, D Gilmore, I McCormack & P Molloy.

The picture below shows Kieran O'Gorman on the charge.  Thanks to JC Sports Photography for taking some great pictures, which can be accessed at this link.

21/10/2018 Leinster Seconds League Division 1B DSLP 13 Longford 18

Longford Early XV secured a well earned first league win of the season with a deserved win versus DLSP.  They has seemed to have learned a lesson after conceding early the week before when they came out fully cocked from the kick off.  Longford put together multiple phases which eventually resulted in centre Ian McCormack crashing over for Longford first try.

DLSP came right back at Longford and went over for a converted try after twenty minutes to put them into a two point lead 7-5.  Longford were playing into a strong wind in the first half and played very well in patches.  However, they will be unhappy about how many times they spilled/turned over ball in contact.  They would have undoubtedly have added a few more scores if not for this.

The score at half time after a very long first half was 7-5 to the home side.

Longford came out all guns blazing at the start of the second half and went back into the lead via a penalty from the boot of Finbarr McGowan; 7-8.  After some further enterprising play, centre Ian McCormack bagged his second try to put Longford in control; 07-13.

However, DLSP has other ideas and came back into the match strongly.  DLSP had a bigger more seasoned side then Longford and it was very committed Longford defence that held them at bay over the course of the match.  They crashed over for a try with 10 minutes to go to leave Longford with a one point advantage.

To their credit Longford did not go into the shell and secured the win with a great block down on the line by John Geelan and follow up by Finbarr McGowan who dotted down to secure a great win for the Early XV; 13-18.

As alluded to in previous articles the Early XV, who include a number of players from last years U18 panel are developing week in week and will be tough opponents for any opposition.  The more they train together and get to know each other the more likely they are to come out of matches with a win.

Longford Squad: P Mimnagh, B Hanley, J Forde, F Davis, D Gilmore, D Geelan, J Geelan, F McGowan, R Shaw, J Mimnagh, I McCormack, J Magan, A Armstrong, W McDermott, P O’Farrell, A Hughes & D Corrigan.

Thoughts from Longford Senior Men Head Coach Glenn Baskett

To leave Dublin with 2 wins today was more to do with the boys showing a lot of ticker than what we could do for them on the side line. U can't coach a want, and that's what we showed today. A want to not let down the work we have done so far this season.

The boys put in a huge physical effort for the second week in a row.

While not always accurate, the want to win was there to see.

For the Early Team the narrow losses finally transferred into a Win.  The age grade boys that are coming in with the experienced boys brings an energy to our group.

The Late Team have started with 4 from 4, 3 on the road in Dublin is a positive start to the season. All the games have been hugely physical, and with no disrespect to last season's league, every game this season is open.

Outside of our group, as a club we are measured by what the J1s do, but internally we measure our progression through how the whole group progresses because if one team isn’t competing it has a wider effect on the other team. And that shows itself in how we have serious selection calls each week now.

While as a coaching group we have spent the last three seasons growing the development of players in the group, but now it is very much a late/early group with a result’s driven expectation from within.

But now the boys will have a down week and get some knocks right, today is about the wins in DLSP but tomorrow for us it's about the next challenge; Tullow.