Arduous battle of Boyne

Boyne full back Eoghan Duffy to prevent the visitors increasing their lead.

Boyne backs Duffy and Brian Howell made some fine runs, but their efforts ended with handling errors and they were bundled into touch.

Kanturk wing forward Dan McCabe suffered the wrath of a touch judge’s intervention when he alerted the referee to an incident which resulted in a yellow card, but this didn’t prevent the Cork men increasing their lead to 6-0 coming up to the half-hour after Boyne again didn’t roll away in the tackle at the breakdown.

Yet another penalty ensued when Boyne out half and assistant coach Niall Kerbey was yellow-carded and penalised for a high tackle, and once more McCauliffe landed a fine kick from the 10-metre line to increase Kanturk’s lead to 9-0 going into half-time.

Boyne’s first opportunity to register a score came just after the interval when Kanturk conceded a rare penalty within kicking range. However, with regular kicker Kerbey in the sin bin the opportunity was entrusted to winger Brodigan and his attempt never got airborne and was easily cleared by Kanturk.

Hopes were raised when shortly after Kerbey’s return he powered his way over for a try following a Boyne scrum for accidental offside. He converted his own try from in front of the posts to leave just two points between the sides.

Boyne had their best spell midway through the second half, but failure to exert control of their possession at times was the undoing of some good work.

At a crucial stage Boyne managed to force a penalty on their own 10-metre line and Kerbey found a superb touch deep in the Kanturk ‘22’ for an attacking lineout. But frustratingly, the throw was crooked and Kanturk cleared beyond the half-way line from the resultant scrum.

Kanturk regained control for the remainder of the game and when Boyne were once again penalised at the breakdown McCauliffe sent the ball between the posts for a 12-7 Kanturk lead.

Boyne were clinging on to a precious losing bonus point going into the closing stages, but they also let this slip when they failed to control a speculative kick into their ‘22’ and conceded a scrum, from which man of the match McCauliffe wrong-footed the Boyne defence on the blind side before delivering a delightful reverse pass to his winger who made the line for the decisive score.

McCauliffe finished off a fine afternoon’s work with the conversion to send his team and a sizeable Kanturk support on the journey home to Cork in a happy mood.

There are still seven games left to play in this league, but with Boyne now firmly rooted at the bottom of the table they have a herculean task to gain enough league points to survive.

Saturday’s effort fell short in a number of aspects. Their propensity to concede penalties cost them dearly and a failure to utilise their backs to any effective attacking ploy was another frustrating aspect of their tactics, while basics such as lineouts, ruck clear-out and retaining possession are other facets which need to be improved.

There isn’t much time to address these issues as Boyne face a very tough assignment away to promotion-chasing Tullamore this coming Saturday.