Ross bow out in extra-time

GENERAL SPORT Disappointing defeat to Athy

SUNDAY SAW the first round throughout the province of the Provincial Towns Cup, and New Ross hosted Athy at Allianz Park.

The Ross mentors must have been disappointed with the weather conditions as the heretofore dry conditions gave way to a mucky greasy dawn which was not likely to suit the home style of play. Ross had the better of the exchanges in the early part of the game, with Kevin Burke punishing an Athy indiscretion from the tee after eight minutes.

This proved to be the only score of the opening period, with Athy exerting huge amounts of pressure on the home line but failing to capitalise on a dominance of field position. The second-half began with Ross stretching the lead after a solid scrum.

Quick distribution found Kevin Burke whose cross kick to Kevin Browne was fielded and fed inside to David Crowdle who kicked through and finished the score. Burke was succesful with the conversion.

Within minutes, Athy cut the lead with a kick and chase leading to an unconverted try. At 60 minutes, more forward pressurefromAthyledtotheirsecondtry before they pulled into the lead with a penalty.

At this stage, it looked like Athy were in the ascendancy but Ross mounted a late surge and gained a kickable penalty, duly converted by Kevin Burke. With full-time reached and the scores level, extra-time was needed to sort this out.

Athy brought the pressure game from the first 80 minutes into additional time and scored a converted try under the posts in the first period before adding a penalty in the second period to take the final score to 23-13.