Galwegians blow chances

GALWEGIANS could and should have been comfortably out of reach at half-time in their AIL meeting with Cork Con, but in the end, the better team won the opening AIB League encounter of the year at Crowley Park on Saturday.

Cork Constitution supporters wore an understandable grin after their side had somehow eked out a 14-6 victory. They knew only too well that they owed the four points more to the shortcomings of the opposition rather than any particular brilliance on their own part. Constitution skipper Ultan O'Callaghan had no doubt as to why his side came out on top.

"You can't beat heart," he insisted. Con certainly competed with the kind of spirit and determination that one expects of such a renowned institution and performed well enough against all the odds in the second half to snatch the four points. They had the cold, stiff wind at their backs in the first half and even so, did remarkably well to turn over leading by 6-5. Scrum-half Pat McCarthy kicked them into an eighth minute lead but 'Wegians looked to have struck for a crucial try after quarter of an hour. An attempted box kick by their scrum-half Alex Page was touched in flight, thereby playing a whole host of their players on side. They duly broke up the middle of the field for Mervyn Murphy to use his bulk and experience to race over for a well taken try. McCarthy restored Con's lead with a penalty but in the run in to half-time, the home side had enough chances to win two matches. They missed two particularly gilt-edged try-scoring opportunities through unforgivably poor passing within yards of the Constitution line. Their coach, Kevin Dineen, couldn't believe what he was seeing. "We opened them up four times but our full-back Ger Brady messed up what should have been two tries; it's very disappointing because he is normally so reliable," Dineen lamented. Well, if he thought that was bad, even worse lay in wait on the turnover!

Out-half Colm Glynn put them 8-6 ahead with a penalty in the 43rd minute and when Ultan O'Callaghan was sin-binned for apparent dissent five minutes later, the odds were all the heavier in favour of Galwegians, especially as the wind was now significantly stronger and there was a touch of rain in the air as well. However, they failed to score, while O'Callaghan was off the pitch and no sooner was he back than McCarthy was yellow-carded for

overly-enthusiastic rucking. Not alone did 'Wegians again fail to score when the scrum-half was away but they actually fell behind to a well struck Brendan Ronan penalty! Meanwhile, Glynn failed with three penalty kicks as things went from bad to worse for the men in blue. "We just blew it," groaned

Dineen. "You can blame a kicker for so many misses he's also normally very reliable and had a great campaign with the Connacht under 21s but it was just one of those days when absolutely nothing went for us. When they had two fellas sin-binned, we should have turned the screw. Instead, we expected to win and didn't put in the hard work. We waited for it to happen, we waited for those kicks to go over."

Inevitably, 'Wegians were further punished on the stroke of time when Frenchman Jean-Vincent Igarza finished off a good move with a Con try in the right hand corner. If it flattered the Cork side, it was also reward for their honest effort and no wonder coach Chris Cantillon was delighted with the outcome. "We have a lot of young players and they had to scrap hard to get the win," he said. "It was a first game in the AIL for many of them and to win away was a superb effort. We controlled the ball in the last twenty minutes and they were making mistakes and playing right into our hands. They had the wind and probably didn't make the best use of it. We had two fellas off for twenty minutes in the second half and both of those guys played very well. Pat McCarthy box kicked very well and I thought Ultan had a smashing game, the way he led the team from the second-row where he doesn't normally play and he carried an awful lot of ball. John Fogarty did well at hooker and Ronan O'Donovan was terrific at first centre. Winning away from home was a huge bonus. Galwegians had three or four contracted players, they had a strong side so now we're looking forward big time to playing St Mary's at home next week."