The Galway Tribesmen got their 2024 Rugby league Ireland campaign up and running with a convincing win over the Cork Bulls 42-6 last Saturday at Douglas Rugby Club in Cork.
The match, which was played in unseasonably cool conditions, was preceded by a minute’s silence in respect of the recently deceased Rugby League Ireland stalwart, Tony Dale. Cork got the game underway, and the Tribesmen at once sought to carry the ball downfield, but the initial exchanges were a little bit scrappy as both teams were guilty of some unforced errors. The Galway men struck first when Rex Aghabueze made a break down the left wing and registered a four-pointer between the posts. Ryan Convey converted to give the Tribesmen a six-point lead with ten minutes past. Both teams settled into the contest and hard running from captain Abdul-haq Abayomi and veteran forward Enda Stanford set the platform for the Galway men, whilst the Bulls countered with uncompromising forwards Idris Rqibi and Dave Kelly.
The Tribesmen went further ahead when a neat offload from Ethan Fifita allowed Kyle Barrett to skip through and place the ball over the line. Convey again added the two points. The Galway men continued to push for further scores but were thwarted in their efforts by a gallant Cork defence. However, a break down the middle for the Tribes resulted in second rower Daniel O'Connell scoring a try. With Convey withdrawn through injury, Barrett took over the kicking duties adding a further two points.
Despite this, the Cork men continued battling and were rewarded when loose forward Rqibi crashed over to register the home team's first points. Ronan Johnson converted the try to put the score at 18-6. The scores did not stay like this for long though as Barrett ran in for his second try, which he also converted. This put the score at 24-6 and this was how the first half finished.
The reintroduction of past master Andrew Atonio after a long hiatus gave the visitors further impetus going into the second half and they began to dominate proceedings. Fullback Florian Jeanlebouef collected the ball inside the Tribe's 40-metre line and broke down the right wing to score a long-range try. Barrett again added the conversion.
Whilst the Cork half-backs tried everything in their toolkit to get the Bulls moving
