Portlaoise bounce back with valuable win over Roscrea

Portlaoise RFC 27 

Roscrea 20 

PORTLAOISE and Roscrea met in Togher on Sunday in a repeat of the last game of last season when the home side won and gained automatic promotion. The result was the same this time around and it was a win Portlaoise badly needed.

They had travelled to North Kildare the previous weekend in the opening round and would have expected to came away with a win, but they imploded And came home pointless.

In contrast, on Sunday they came away with maximum points after a much improved performance but there still many imperfections to their performance.

While their play at the break down had improved there was still work to be done in this facit of their game. There is still a tendency to try and get away passes when retaining possession would be a much safer bet.

One area where they make life very hard on themselves in when exiting their own danger area. Exciting running rugby is always good to look at but trying to exit your 22 by eternally running the ball will inevitably punish you.

But importantly Portlaoise’s discipline was much better than seven days earlier.

While it is very early days yet, the win shot up to fourth pace on the table but they will face a stern test. They must head to Cill Dara who have two very impressive league wins under their belt and whop have already beaten Portlaoise 25-10 in the Lalor Cup a few weeks back.

But that is for another week and no doubt there will be a lot of work put into training this coming week.

Sunday’s team showed a number of changes from the side that lost to North Kildare. Niall Keenan came in at full back and Darragh Townsend in second row and Ronan Donlon at flanker, and all three impressed.

Others who stood out on the day were number 8 Mike Russell and Liam Doyle in the forwards, while Cormac Rigney continues to grow into his role as a centre.

The opening exchanges were evenly shared but Portlaoise make the breakthrough 10 minutes in. As he was to do all day, Michael Rigney won a lineout cleanly and Jake Byrne and Will Reilly whipped the ball to Donlon who broke the gain line before getting a pass away to Cormac Rigney to race in for the try. Mathew Coonan added the conversion.

It too another 20 minutes before the next score was registered, and that for Roscrea who were awarded a penalty for a high tackle close to the Portlaoise line. They elected to tap and go and were rewarded with out half Jack Feeney crossed but missed the conversion. But he made up for that minutes later when converting a penalty to put his side in front.

But Portlaoise finished the half positively thanks to a Roscrea error when penalised for not releasing and Coonan landed the kick to leave the home side leading 10—8 at the break.

The new half was seven minutes old when Portlaoise had a lineout inside the Roscrea 22. Another clean win led to an excellent maul. When replacement hooker Conor Deegan peeled off he was shot inches short of the line. Portlaoise displayed good patient play which ended with prop Paddy Coss crashing over to give the home side a seven point cushion.

However, over the 20 minutes or so, they took their eye off the job in hand. Their play became somewhat messy with unforced errors and lacked the intensity needed.

They were have a few very narrow escapes but were eventually punished when conceding a penalty on the 40 metre line for playing the ball on the ground. Roscrea went of the corner and from the line out set up a series of mauls ending with Feeny again touching down and his conversion had the sides level with 15 minutes remaining.

That score seemed to shake Portlaoise back to reality and they upped the pace immediately. Just three minutes later. From another ruck Byrne and Reill combined to set Cormac Rigney away in style and when he flicked the ball to Cullan Kirwan the replacement outstripped the Roscrea defence to score in the corner.

Roscrea were not helped when their outstanding number 10, Feeny was yellow carded with 12 minutes remaining.

Minutes later Liam Doyle gathered a Roscrea kick and burst through their defensive line. He then off-loaded to Sean Pweters who linked up with Byrne who set Russell free and he raced in for the crucial forth try with Coonan adding the extras.

But as often seems to be the case, Portlaoise seem to like making life hard for themselves. They were penalised for an early push in a scrum. Their scrumhalf Peter Wright tapped quickly, whisked the ball wide ending with full back Jack Ormond crossing.

With six minutes remaining Portlaoise’s lead was cut to a precarious seven point but they manged to hold out and take their first win of the season.

PORTLAOISE: Niall Keenan; Jamie Holohan, Cormac Rigney, Mathew Coonan, Euan McCann; Will Reilly, Jake Byrne; Aaron Coily, Ryan McEvoy, Paddy Coss; Michael Rigney, Darragh Townsend; Liam Doyle, Ronan Donlon, Mike Russell.

Replacements: Conor Deegan, Eoin Keenan, Sean Peters, Joe Carroll, Mark Kelly, Cullan Kirwan.

ROSCREA: Jack Ormond; Delacy Byrne, Mark Dwyer, Brian Doughan, Cormac Murray; Jack Feeney, Peter Wright; Peter Hennessy, Michael Fitzgerald, Cathal Ryan; Mark Armitage, Ben Spencer; Ben Armitage, Andrew Hodgins, Michael Treacy.

Replacements: John Maher, Sam O’Brien, Jason Dockery, Dam Carey, John Lillis.

Referee: Conor Hanly