Fast start key as Roscrea rattle Portarlington

Leinster League Division 2B/3 

Portarlington 13 

Roscrea 17 

FIRST played second on Sunday afternoon as the pace-setters in Division 2B/3 of the Leinster League faced off in Lea Road, Portarlington.

Visitors Roscrea came into the game with a 100% record, having won all seven of their opening league games; a run made all the more impressive when considering the men from Streamstown secured a four-try bonus point in each of those victories.

Portarlington, for their part, were on a similar trajectory, having won their first five games - all but one of which came with the four-try bonus point. But the Laois club saw that run halted last time out when they were held to a draw away to Garda Westmanstown.

But any question of who the big dog is in this division was settled on Sunday afternoon - for the time being at least - as Roscrea scored three first-half tries to secure a hard-fought four-point victory.

Portarlington will be fuming at the manner of the defeat, with most of the damage done before Port even knew what hit them.

The match got off to the worst possible start for Ross Doyle's men, with Roscrea crossing for the game's opening score - a try with just four minutes on the clock.

The conversion made it 7-0, but things went from bad to worse for the hosts only three minutes later when Roscrea touched down for a second try.

That left it at 12-0 after seven minutes and a mountain to climb for Portarlington.

The home side showed a lot of hard-nosed grit to stop Roscrea from running riot and needed a big defensive effort from their pack to keep the deficit at 12 points.

Then, with 33 minutes played, Portarlington finally moved the scoreboard. Blindside flanker Gavin Crampton has been in fine form this season and once again added his name to the scoresheet with a lovely try to get Port up and running.

Scrum half Darragh Perry added the extras and that looked to be that, with Port five points adrift approaching half time.

But Roscrea had other ideas, crossing for a third try with the clock in the red. They missed the conversion again but held a ten-point lead at the break, up 17-7.

Portarlington were the better team after the break and cut the gap in the 49th minute with a well-taken penalty.

The home side saw their defence tested throughout the second half but never relented as they kept Roscrea scoreless in the second half.

Perry slotted another penalty ten minutes from time to cut the gap to four points, but it was the visitors who had to defend in the closing stages to leave Leah Road with the win.

Port are back in action this coming Sunday when they make the trip to Meath to play mid-table Ratoath.

SCORERS:

Portarlington: Gavin Crampton (1 try), Darragh Perry (2 pens, 1 con).

PORTARLINGTON: Adam Lambkin; Eoin Worrell, Jack Hynes, Denville Maya, Anavil Storey; Andrew Evans, Darragh Perry; Daragh Jewell, Jack Hennessy, James Dunne; Toby Neilson-Dry, Jack McCann; Warren Murray, Gavin Crampton, Dylan Stronge.

Replacements: Fintan Murphy, Aaron Costello, Jason Yellop, Craig Shaw, Theo Mc Grath, Simon Doggett, Jordan Fitzpatrick.

ROSCREA: Jack Ormond; Cormac Murray, Delacy Byrne, Mervyn Hayes, William Cleare; Mark Dwyer, Brian Bergin; Peter Hennessy, Ben Armitage, Cathal Ryan; Tadhg Hogan, Luke Standish; Gordon Michael Shannon, Andrew Hodgins, Seamus Treacy.

Replacements: Michael Fitzgerald, John Maher, Enda Maher, Paul McNamara, Alex Moloney, Sam Carey, John Lillis.

Referee: Keith Spendlove