2010-10-16 / / :
Derry regain form at Cooke
Cooke 10ptspts, City of Derry 41pts
City of Derry Rugby Club returned to winning ways on Saturday last when they comprehensively defeated Cooke Rugby Club in Belfast. Derry put their first defeat by Armagh in the Ulster Qualifying League last week well behind them when they scored six try’s to gain a bonus point victory. Derry Coach Bevan Lynch said after the game “we improved since last week, with the return of Colin Mitchell and Steven Simms to the back row, they brought a sense of urgency to our play that was missing. We improved our set piece and got a platform from which to work off. We still have a long way to go to getto the level that is required to win this league”.
Cooke started the game the brighter of the two sides and were on top for the first ten minutes. Cooke’s initial control was short-lived when on fifteen minutes Derry registered their first points when Richard McCarter kicked a simple penalty as Cooke were judged off-side just outside their own 22. Derry returned immediately to Cooke territory where a miss-fielded kick was collected by the Derry fullback Peter Henderson who initiated some nice inter play by the Derry backs to produce a try scored by Josh Lewis, McCarter added the conversion giving Derry a 10-0 lead with 18 minutes played.
Ten minutes later a quick tapped penalty by Derry from the Cooke 22 was recycled and spread wide where the Derry No8 Colin Mitchell was on hand to score an unconverted try in the corner. With 5 minutes remaining in the first half Derry again chose to run a penalty from their own half. The ball was then kicked over the Cooke defenced by Richaed McCarter where Colin Mitchell won the race to touch down with McCarter adding the conversion to leave Derry leading 22pts to nil at the break.
Cooke started the second half the better and were rewarded for pressure when out-half Cartmill broke through the Derry defence but was stopped close to the line. The ball was quickly recycled by the supporting Cooke forwards to lock McCordick who crashed over for a try, Beggs was wide with the conversion. With 10 minutes played, Cooke reduced arrears further with some slick handling by their backs allowed centre McMurray to score. Fullback Beggs was again wide his conversion attempt.
Derry forwards began to win possession and Richard McCarter got possession on the left hand side of the pitch a made a great break to score untouched in the right corner of the pitch to secure the bonus point. Midway through the half Derry centre David Founston found a gap in the Cooke midfield and sprinted 60 metres to score by the posts for McCarter to Convert. With five minutes remaining the Derry forwards secured possession for Man of the Match Colin Mitchell to score his third try which McCarter again converted. City of Derry’s next game is at home to Bangor n Saturday next Kick-off:2.30pm
City of Derry Team: Peter Henderson, Josh Lewis, David Founston, Jared Bennett, Ryan Campbell, Richard McCarter, Andrew Semple, David Houston, Stephen Simms, Colin Mitchell, Bob McKillop, Brian Prue, Sam Duffy, Sam McAuley, David Witherow. Replacements: Cathal Creggan, Stephen Corr.
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