Longford secure 2nd Place and a Promotion Playoff   11/03/2019

090319 Leinster League Division 1B North Kildare 22 Longford Late XV 32

By Tommy Butler Longford RFC PRO

It was groundhog day in North Kildare on Saturday, where Longford travelled to Kilcock for the second time in a week, after last Sundays game was abandoned 65 minutes in, due to a snow blizzard, with Longford in the lead.  Like the week before Longford were locked in a head to head battle with Monkstown for second place in the league, which could secure them a promotion play off.  However, the maths had got more simple; as Monkstown did not secure a four try bonus point the previous week, a win here would be enough to secure second place.  Although North Kildare had already finished bottom of the league, as Longford found out the previous week, they would not let Longford leave with an easy win.

Longford kicked off the game this time with the wind at their backs, playing down the slightly slopped North Kildare pitch.  Clearly, the players had done some good work during the week as they quickly got into their stride and more or less lorded possession for the opening twenty minutes.  The first return from the Longford pressure was a Ryan McHugh penalty after eight minutes.  This was then followed up by a nice Shane Rodgers try, which showcased good interplay between backs and forwards.  The away support was beginning to feel at this stage that is might be Longford’s day.  However, the try was the impetus North Kildare needed to get back into the game.  In their first foray into Longford’s 22, they scored any easy try up the middle to pull Longford’s lead back to three points.  However, Longford came right back at North Kildare scoring two tries from Joe McGowan and replacement Conor Seery.  The try by McGowan was created by a lovely inside pass from Ryan McHugh.  But the high scoring half did not end there, with North Kildare striking back up the middle again for a second relatively easy score.  The first half finished with Longford exerting huge pressure on the North Kildare line via a number of scrums and a driving maul.  Unfortunately, they could not cross the whitewash, to leave the half time score 14-20 in Longford’s favour.  The lead felt uncomfortably slim for all the dominance Longford had enjoyed in the first half.

North Kildare upped the ante with the wind behind them at the start of the second half and played like a team who were fighting for a place at the top rather than the bottom of the table.  They put Longford under a lot of pressure.  Some poor decisions from Longford did not help their cause either.  North Kildare struck for a deserved try twenty minutes in, to take the lead for the first time in the game.  Indeed, they fluffed a great opportunity for another try soon after.  However, this Longford team have ground results out against adversity throughout the season and two tries in the last ten minutes from Joe McGowan and Benny McManus put the match to bed and secured their highest every Leinster League finish; Second in Division 1B. 

The prize for second place is a playoff against Bective for a place in Leinster’s Top 1A Division next season.  It is a great reward for all this seasons hard work and Longford will be going into the match with all guns blazing and nothing to lose.  The match will take place towards the end of March at a neutral venue.  However, the league is parked for the moment as Longford look forward to the visit of Kilkenny in the Provincial Towns Cup Quarter Final on St. Patricks Day in CPL Park.

Best wishes from all of the squad to Sean Flynn on his recovery from an injury in the game.

Longford: P O’Farrell, H Connolly, D Quinn, B McManus, D O’Brien, K O’Gorman, D Farrell, P Gallogly, R Shaw, I McCormack, J McGowan, R McHugh, S Rodgers, S McGuiness, S Flynn, J Forde, P Dardis, F McGowan, C Seery & P Molloy. 

After Match Reaction from Longford Head Coach Glenn Baskett.

“We went out today and got the result we needed against a North Kildare team that really asked questions of us. You look at how they played and wonder how they were unlucky enough to be relegated. They attacked direct and we weren’t on the money in the tackle. But saying that I thought with the changes we had positionally and personally we did OK. We are disappointed in how we played in some areas today but gives us things we know we need to work on. We need to look at some of our set piece, our decision making at times let us down again too, and as always we need to look at how we can improve our defence. But to finish our round robin of league games in 2nd spot is what we targeted after slipping up against Carlow and Monkstown. We have used 40+ players in first team games this year and that shows where we are at depth wise. We treat these games as opportunities, an opportunity to play. That’s what today’s win has given us, an opportunity to play Bective in a promotion game. The boys can enjoy today and the weekend but for them Monday means we start to think about the 17th and our ¼ final against Kilkenny, for us coaches we have already started that thought process.  Again, it’s an opportunity for the group and one we would ask Longford people to come out and support on Sunday. The support we got for that vital game against Suttonians was huge, but we would hope that next Sunday brings an even bigger crowd, the boys get a real lift from the support and as it’s our last home game of the year we hope to see as many people out to cheer the boys on.”

One minutes silence was observed before the game in memory of our friend in rugby Donal Considine who died suddenly during the week.












Powered By: Sportlomo - Online Sports Software
Website Designed By: Sports Manager


powered by Sportlomo.com