Greystones sit atop Division 2B after hard-fought win
GREYSTONES BELFAST H’QUINS 14 8
JUST a few hours after England had failed abysmally failed to justify their favourites’ tag against South Africa on Saturday morning, Greystones were forced to battle hard to come out on the right side of the result against rank outsiders Belfast Harlequins in their All-Ireland League Division 2B clash at Dr Hickey Park.
With only one win in their previous three games, the visiting side unlikely harboured any significant degree of optimism about coming up trumps against opposition who boosted a 100 per cent record from their three outings and were holding top position in the table.
But despite the disparity in the record of the two sides, Greystones could not afford to relax until the final whistle, as Harlequins enjoyed a marked territorial edge in the final 20 minutes of the game, generally penning the home side in their own half, and often in their own ’22’.
As the contest entered the closing stages, Greystones were hanging on grimly to a slender enough 14-8 advantage, meaning that a converted try by the opposition would likely lead to the home side losing their unbeaten record.
But some excellent defending by Kevin Lewis’s charges ensured that the visitors never seriously threatened to register a five-pointer.
And so a first half try by hooker Darragh Higgins, which was converted by Andrew Kealy, and a second half penalty try proved sufficient to seal victory against opposition for whom a penalty by out half Coby Miln and a try by right winger Richie McKee helped them hold a 8-7 lead at half-time.
Arguably one of the most notable features of the early stages was an outstanding scrum by the Belfast side which led to referee Tommy O’Donoghue awarding a penalty from which Miln edged his side 3-0 ahead after 11 minutes.
But just four minutes later, Greystones responded tellingly, Higgins barging his way over the line after a move initiated by out half Killian Marmion and carried on Kealy and full-back Mark Meyler. And Kealy comfortably added the extra points to leave his side 7-3 in front.
With four minutes left in the opening half, Kealy underlined his excellent defensive qualities, racing back to get a gather a kick-ahead by pacey Harlequins left winger Chris Larmour.
However, from the resultant scrum, Miln threw out a long pass and McKee gathered the ball before touching down, with Miln missing the conversion from a difficult angle.
The crucial and only score of the second half materialised on 53 minutes when the visitors conceded a penalty try awarded for pulling down a maul, and following this seven-pointer the home side found themselves very much on the back foot for the remainder of the contest.
Afterwards, Greystones coach Kevin Lewis said: ‘It was a very scrappy game, the weather was horrible, and the wind seemed to change at half-time as well.
‘So it was really hard to hold on to the ball, there was an awful lot of turn-overs, and there was very little continuity which obviously doesn’t suit the way we like to play.
‘They were able to stay in the game and we didn’t manage to get the extra score, and that meant they were able to hang on to us and that they had to something to play on for right to the end of the game.
‘Our decision-making wasn’t brilliant, but we defended well and we managed to turn them over when we had to, and I suppose we got out of jail really.
‘We weren’t surprised that Harlequins made it difficult for us as they beat Corinthians well last week, and so they were on an up. “They’ve got a number of new players and they’ve improved considerably from last year, and you’re not going to score a bonus point in every match.
“It was a game that we could have let slip, but our line-out functioned very well, and when we got our chances we took them, as the try and the penalty try were really the only times we got close to their line.
‘We now have four wins out of four games and you can’t do any better than that. So we’re now looking forward to the next game against Wanderers next Friday night.’
And Lewis’s Harlequins counterpart Nick Wells said: ‘We had a lot of the play in the second half, but we didn’t show that clinical edge to get the scores that we needed against an outfit like Greystones.
‘You need to be able to see what’s happening maul-wise, and I just thought we weren’t patient in the build-up.
‘As well, a lot of our play was one-dimensional, we made it easy for Greystones to defend against us and I don’t think we got our backs into it the whole afternoon.
‘But it’s a learning curve for us as we’re quite a young side and we have a couple of boys just out of school in the back line.
‘However, I still feel it was an opportunity that got away from us.
‘Today’s result means that we have won just one of our four games, but I think there’s no way you could say that we are a oneout-of-four team. We should have got something out of our game against Wanderers and you could argue that we could also have got something out of today.’
Mark Meyler; Andrew Kealy, Con Callan, Jason Curran, Paudie Geoghegan; Killian Marmion, Alex Ryan; Dan Mau’u, Darragh Higgins, Conor Pearse, Chris Simmonds, Dan Mannion,
GREYSTONES:
Rob Connolly, Cormac O’Donoghue, Robin O’Sullivan. Subs: Ronan Kearney for Darragh Higgins (35), Alan Dempsey for Cormac O’Donoghue (35), Cormac O’Donoghue for Rob Connolly (49), Nick Quirke for Mark Meyler (49), Darragh Higgins for Ronan Kearney (62), Rob Connolly for Alan Dempsey (62), Matt O’Brien for Nick Quirke (62), Alan Dempsey for Chris Simmonds (79).
Mark Glover; Richie McKee, Kyle Adams, John Fletcher, Chris Larmour; Coby Miln, Conor McAuley; Mark McGrath, Rory Winters, James Harrison, Jaz Andress, Matthew McKelvey, Joni Siri, Daryl Marshall, Ben Alexander. Subs: Morgan Ellis for Mark McGrath (half-time), Christian Bennison for Daryl Marshall (60), Mark McGrath for Morgan Ellis (65), Ben Sloan for Richie McKee (65), Stewart Evans for Joni Siri (72).
BELFAST HARLEQUINS: REFEREE:
Tommy O’Donoghue.