Letterkenny RFC continue unbeaten home start to season with win over Holywood

LETTERKENNY RFC PRODUCED a competent home performance at Dave Gallaher Memorial Park on Saturday to defeat Holywood.

Letterkenny shaded the early exchanges in the forwards with Conor Dunleavy and Chris Digimas prominent with the ball in hand. The early pressure brought about an early penalty and out-half Ryan Mortimer was close with the long range shot at goal into the breeze.

Both sides continued to feel each other out using runners off nine but both teams were making handling errors after several phases of play so the game lacked continuity. With a dominant scrum Letterkenny were starting to take control of the game and the running of Gareth McGill and Gary Canning off nine and the appetite for work from John Anthony McFadden on the wing was causing Holywood problems.

Halfway through the first half Holywood lost their experienced tight head to injury and with it Letterkenny lost significant scrum-time advantage. The home side continued to monopolise possession and Holywood were forced into conceding penalties at the breakdown.

From a penalty Letterkenny were awarded a line out five metres from the Holwood line but unfortunately weren’t able to capitalise on this good field position and the visitors cleared their lines. Holywood then took the lead following a long speculative kick down field which wasn’t dealt with very well resulting in some panic in the home defence conceding a kickable penalty.

This was duly converted to leave the half time score 3-0 to Holywood.

With the slight breeze behind them in the second half Letterkenny were able to contain the visitors in their own half. With most plays off scrum half Conall Sheridan, Gary Canning and Michael Foy led the early charge and the constant pressure on the tiring visiting defence was beginning to tell. Digimas made the breakthrough for Letterkenny when he barrelled over from close range for a try converted by Mortimer.

Letterkenny continued to heap the pressure on the visitors but indiscipline at the breakdown and the offside line was providing Holywood with an escape route.The home defence was equal to anything Holywood had to offer in attack with Rae Clarke proving to be a nuisance at ruck time and there was also some excellent defending by the new centre pairing of David Haughton and Sean Deery.

As the game wore on more and more space became available and there were some good line breaks by Deery and Canning. Dunleavy got rewarded for a strong carrying performance when after a number of phases he found himself out on the left wing and his strength took him past the attempted tacklers to score in the corner. Dunleavy’s try was excellently converted by Mortimer in difficult conditions.

Holywood to their credit continued to give it everything to get back in the game but lost another player to injury. McFadden came closest to adding to the scoreline for Letterkenny after another strong run but the scoreline finished 14-3.

The result maintains Letterkenny’s 100% home record and puts Letterkenny into sixth place and into the top half of the league table for the first time this season. Next Saturday’s opponents are Ophir away and with both teams recording five wins and four defeats from nine starts something will have to give.

Training continues on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 7-8.30pm. All are welcome.

Letterkenny Rugby Club in association with main sponsor Kelly’s Toyota, Port Rd., Letterkenny.