Corinthians overcome Galwegians in City Derby

Corinthians 34 Galwegians 19

Galway Corinthians RFC ended their Bank of Ireland Connacht Senior League campaign with a fifteen-point win over City rivals Galwegians in front of a good crowd in Corinthian Park on Friday night.

Despite missing several regular starters, there will be a feeling of satisfaction among both coaches that their players got a good run out ahead of the start of the Energia League that gets underway in two weeks. For Corinthians, it means a home game against Wanderers in Division 2B while for Galwegians, a trip to Tullamore on Friday the 6th is what lies ahead of them in Division 2C.

While derbies between these two great rivals can be frenetic and at times tempestuous, the respect is also there and none more so than with the moment’s silence afforded to the late Mick “Berso” Berry who served as president of Corinthians in 2011. Berso was highly respected by all who knew him and it was fitting that the moment was observed beautifully as club loyalties were forgotten for a brief minute by all there.

Once the whistle went, it was game on and like all derbies, it started frenetically with Galwegians ich McColgan yellow carded after just three minutes for a high tackle.

With the numerical advantage, Corinthians made hay and after five minutes were rewarded when Max Holmes went over after a driving maul for the opening try.

Six minutes later, Galwegians responded and again from a driving maul. Nicky Lawless using his power to score.

With neither opening tries converted this game was now gaining a real competitive edge and Corinthians regained the lead with Peter Rainsford showing a clean pair of heels to skip past two tackles and dive in the corner.

Galwegians were stung and they responded again and in fact, took the lead. A lineout set piece sees Hugo Gens link with Liam Angermann who went over. The conversion from Tiarnan Neville was good and Galwegians were now ahead.

As the clock entered the final moments of the first half, Corinthians would get their third try following a scrum outside the Wegians’ 22. The pass went wide and went through five pairs of hands before an excellent weighted pass found Rory McClean who made no mistake.

Again, the action flowed, and following the restart, Galwegians hit back again. This time Jack Winters got on the end of a lineout turnover which earned them a penalty and the team captain used his power to get through the cover. Neville’s conversion was good and Galwegians now lead by four.

However, it would be the last time they would lead the game as Corinthians went up a gear scoring three unanswered tries. First, Peter Rainsford with his second with Rory McClean following suit. Both tries came from excellent team play and with Gareth Kilkelly getting a well deserved try near the end and Jack Conway kicking the last two conversions Corinthians ran out comfortable winners.

While neither team was going to win the Connacht Senior League coming into this game, both will be delighted with the progress that is being made and they will look forward to the start of the Energia League with confidence.

Corinthians: F MacCearra, R McClean, C Grant, L  Carpenter, F McNulty, J Conway, J Tierney. P Fahy, M Holmes, R Dufficy, R Glynn, G Kilkelly, G Murray, P Flannery, M Boyle (Capt).

Replacements: C Leonard, A Burke, M Garcia, MJ Gavin, P Rainsford, H Sheridan.

Galwegians:  P Nash, J Munn, R Deacy, J Kennedy, B Walsh, T Neville, A Sherlock. J Winters (Capt), N Lawless, M McColgan, E Tarmey, M McLoughlin, H Gens, J Va’asuaga, L Angerman.

Replacements: G Ukwuoma, J Haugh, O Halpin, J Quinn, J Deacy, E Brady.

Referee: Nathan Kearns