2011-02-05 / Wanderers / AIL Home:
CITY OF DERRY 26pts Monivea 11pts
City of Derry Rugby Club made history on Saturday last when they defeated Monivea from Galway in their All Ireland AIB Junior Cup Semi Final to qualify for the Clubs first All Ireland Final at any level. The Final will be played in Athlone on Saturday 30th January with a 1pm Kick-off. Derry will meet their old rivals Armagh in an all Ulster final. Armagh qualified for the final when they defeated the current AIB Cup Holders Tullamore by 21pts to 8pts on Saturday last also.
There was a doubt about this fixture at Judges Road all week with the inclement weather but sterling work by Club members on Thursday night ensured that that the game could go ahead as planned. Monivea played with a slight breeze in the first half and looked well up for this tie from the start. The first twenty five minutes belonged to the Connaught men and the Derry forwards had to work overtime to repel the western storm.
There were just four minutes on the clock when Derry were penalised for hands in the ruck and Gerr O’Connor gave Monivea the lead with a simple penalty. Monivea were carrying ball deep into the Derry 22metre line but tremendous defense from Sam McAuley who was tackling everything that moved and he kept the Derry line intact with great help from David Witherow, Chris Shields and Captain Bob McKillop.
Derry forwards were caught off-side at ruck on twenty five minutes and Gerr O’Connor again increased Monivea’s lead to 6pts with a penalty from in front of the posts. The Derry back row were beginning to come more into the game and Mark Walker was wining good ball on the ground and was ably supported by Stephen Corr and Karl Gemmell.
Derry got themselves right back into the game on thirty minutes, the athletic David Houston won quality line out ball Ryan Campbell carried ball forward and three quick phases of play later scrum half Andrew Semple found his cousin David Fouston who made the decisive break. Richard McCarter at out half picked out full back Peter Henderson gliding into the line at pace to score by the posts, Mark O’Connor added the conversion to give Derry a 7pts to 6pts lead.
Derry were taking the game by the scruff of the next as half time approached. Monivea kicked a speculative ball into the Derry 22 metre area and a miss kick to touch by one of the Derry backs allowed the Monivea wing forward Patrick Fitzmaurice to score an unconverted try with the last move of the half to give his team an 11pts to 7pts half time lead.
City of Derry started the second half with some intent and the advantage of the elements. Good forward play by Gemmell and Walker on five minutes gave Funston a chance to make inroads deep into the Monivea half. Josh Lewis was on hand to quickly feed Mark O’Connor to score an unconverted try in the corner. Derry brought on Stephen Ferguson at tight head prop and he immediately made an impression with his solid scrimmaging. Derry won a go forward scrum on the opposition 22 meter line which allowed the Derry No 8 Stepehen Corr to pickup and gallop in for a try which Mark O’Connor converted to give his team an 8pts lead.
The game was over as a contest with Derry well on top. Derry finished the game in some style when McCarter made a break down the right hand side of the field and after a few intricate passes with Karl Gemmell, McCarter sealed an historic victory with a special try converted by Mark O’Connor to give his team a 15pt win.
Derry’s Forward Coach Mark Nicholl said after the game “we were a bit rusty early on which was understandable considering we haven’t played for five weeks. There is only so much you can do when training indoors and there is no substitute for tackling contact like what you get in a game. We will come on as a team on the back of that performance and we can look forward to many crutial games to come for the rest of the season. What and exciting time for us all here at the Club. We now look forward to our Towns Cup game at home against Ballyclare on Saturday next and then we will prepare for hopefully what will be a great occasion in Athlone”.
David Houston got the “Man of the Match” award for an outstanding performance all round. His loose play around the pitch gave a lead to his teammates and his line out fielding was top drawer which gave his team a quality attacking platform.
City of Derry Team; Peter Henderson, Josh Lewis, David Funston, Ryan Campbell, Mark O’Connor, Richard McCarter, Andrew Semple, David Witherow, Sam McCauley,
Chris Shields, David Houston, Bob McKillop (Capt), Karl Gemmell, Mark Walker, Stephen Corr. Replacements; Jason Mitchell, Stephen Ferguson, Stephen Simms, Rudi Moore, Steven Logue, Jarred Bennett.
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