Galway Tribesmen 66 Cork Bulls 10
The Galway Tribesmen Rugby League team hosted old rivals the ‘Cork Bulls’ last Saturday, in the penultimate round in this year’s truncated All Ireland Rugby League Championship.
The Cork team kicked off to the Tribesmen and the Galway men quickly mounted an attack down the left-hand channel and they registered their first points through Mata Fifita within a minute of the game commencing. Seosamh McDonagh kicked the conversion to make it 6-0 with only a couple of minutes played.
The Cork men restarted the game and the Tribesmen began to mount another attack, however a stiffer defence by the Bulls this time resulted in the Galway men running out of plays and they handed the ball over inside the Cork 20 metre zone. The Cork men who by had now recovered from the early score, started to put together some of their own plays orchestrated by scrum half veteran Rod Batchelor. An overzealous Tribesmen defence were caught not standing square at the play the ball and the Bulls made good use of their extra set of plays. However aggressive defence from the Galway men resulted in the ball being turned over and another break down the left down allowed Fifita to carve another opening for himself. McDonagh slotted over the conversion and the scores were 12-0 to the Galway men after 6 minutes.
The Bulls however rallied after these initial stages and strong running from front rower Dave McCarthy and another stalwart Mick Milne settled the Cork men into the game and only tenacious defending from captain Matthew ‘Shaggy’ Towey and Tom Gormley amongst others keep the Cork men from scoring. Unfortunately for the Bulls, a loose carry led to another attack from the Tribesmen down the left channel. A series of quick passes set up for a hat trick for Fifita on the 28th minute. McDonagh duly converted to put the score at 18-0.
The Cork men continued fighting to get on the scoreboard and aggressive running and smart interplay between the halfbacks allowed the centre, Luke Moloney to register the first score for the Cork Bulls. Kevin O’Connell kicked the conversion to put the scores at 18-6. The Cork joy was short lived however as a great team effort from the Galway men up the middle of the park gave McDonagh his 1st try of the game, he converted his own try to put the score at 24-6 and this is how the half ended.
The Galway men kicked off to resume the game for the second half and went on to enjoy a 20-minute purple patch, hooker Liam Marmion ran in 2 excellent tries in quick succession, both converted by McDonagh. Mata Fifita ran in his 4th try, again converted, and Matthew Towey also got on the score sheet. A converted try by debutant Jamin Hoffman put the scores at 54-6 with 20 minutes to go. A heroic and combatant Cork effort for the final 20 minutes held the Tribesmen attack at bay, and they were able to sustain pressure in the Tribesmen danger zone. A couple of quick passes out the right-hand side set up hooker Keith Graham to cross the whitewash. The conversion was missed which left the score 54-10.
The last few minutes of the game led to a resurgence from the Galway men and Hoffman ran in his 2nd try which was converted. McDonagh rounded off the scoring on the 80th minute and converted his own try which completed a perfect day from him from the boot and personal tally of 30 points. The final score was 66-10 to the Tribesmen.
The Tribesmen now move on to ‘finals day’ next week at the Claddagh. Having topped their pool group, they will face current All Ireland Champions ‘The Longhorns’ at 4pm. Meanwhile, todays’ runners up the Cork Bulls will take on the Dublin City Exiles at 2pm, whilst the Barracudas from Carlow will play Athboy at 12pm. Finals day promises to be a feast of Rugby League, showcasing the best of talent on the Island of Ireland. All are welcome from 12pm onwards.
