Boyne make winning start to All-Ireland campaign
NEW coach Graeme Eastwood will take Boyne to his former club Rainey Old Boys for a top-of-thetable clash this Saturday after starting his reign with an excellent bonus-point win last weekend.
The Drogheda men, who have narrowly escaped relegation out of the AIL for the past two seasons, lined out along familiar lines for their Division 2C opener against Bruff and hit the ground running in the warm sunshine at Shamrock Lodge.
Boyne’s display delighted their supporters with four excellent tries and showed massive improvement in their forward division which suggests they will be a formidable unit at this level.
The hosts had five points on the scoreboard within five minutes after forcing the visitors into some frantic defence straight from the kick-off. The outstanding Rory Hennessy, Man of the Match, crashed over for his side’s opening try, although Niall Kerbey failed with the difficult conversion attempt from wide on the right.
Whilst Bruff were blitzed during these opening minutes, they soon settled and took the game to Boyne and were rewarded when they forced a penalty on the opposition 10-metre line from which they moved the ball quickly, spread-eagled the home defence and crossed for a well-executed try. This was converted and the Limerick side now led 7-5.
Boyne were continuing to bring the ball into Bruff danger territory with good work by their forwards, whose domination of the tight exchanges gave their backs opportunities to attack. One of these forays brought them up to the Bruff ‘22’, but the visitors managed a turnover which saw their winger sprint away and score a try completely against the run of play - 12-5.
Boyne’s play became somewhat disorganised at this stage and a poor drop-out following this score had them on the back foot again as they conceded a penalty from the resultant scrum. However, O’Grady let them off the hook when he sent his place-kick wide from straight in front of the posts.
Nevertheless, Bruff were now in the ascendency and putting the home side under pressure, with their backs moving the ball wide. It was just as well that Brian Howell and Ronan O’Brien defended tigerishly to prevent a further try.
Coming up to half-time Boyne were continuing to play good rugby, but they lost the ball too often in the loose exchanges in vital areas, which gave Bruff the opportunity to clear the danger.
Eventually, though, out half Kerbey made a superb break up the middle and left the Bruff defence flailing in his wake before linking up with his outside backs, with Ardee native O’Brien taking the scoring pass to cross for the try which Kerbey couldn’t convert.
Trailing 12-10 at the break, Boyne played against a slight breeze in the second period, but that didn’t affect their approach to the game as they continued to move the ball wide.
If there was one feature of Boyne’s game that they will want to improve upon, it was their lineout which let them down on numerous occasions. Their ploy of throwing to the back of the line didn’t work for them and Bruff took full advantage of that weakness in their opponents’ play.
Still, the class of the Boyne backs came to the fore in the 50th minute when they ran from deep, and with some delightful footwork and transfers winger Kevin McCleery took a brilliant pass from his inside centre Howell to go over in the corner. This time Kerbey landed an excellent conversion and Boyne now led 17-12.
Bruff rarely threatened the Boyne line in the second half - until the 70th minute, that is. Substitutions seemed to pay dividends for the visitors and they went through a number of phases before crashing over close to the posts for a seven-pointer to edge 19-17 in front with eight minutes left.
Kerbey was short with a penalty kick a few minutes later and in the end it took something special to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat.
It was the Boyne backs who produced it when Duffy and McCleery combined to make a searing break out of their own half. Great support work from centres O’Brien and Howell saw the latter go in under the posts for a brilliant try which was easily converted by Kerbey and Boyne had a precious bonus point win in the bag.
The Drogheda side will also take great satisfaction from their discipline as they went through the entire game without a yellow card.
The return of Hugh Carolan, John Kinsella and Paddy Cooney to the panel were big factors, together with the return to form of Brian Howell, while young Nicky Smith at scrum half is another positive in terms of the side’s prospects. However, it was number 8 Hennessy who was the standout player thanks to his industrious workrate and strong running.