Crushing defeat for Dundalk
LEINSTER LEAGUE DIVISION 1A
DUNDALK’S season suffered its first real setback on Saturday as they were comprehensively beaten 24-0 at home to Bective Rangers on Saturday.
While it’s two defeats on the bounce now for Adam Doyle’s side the Ashbourne loss was much more palatable than Saturday’s.
Doyle spoke previous about how he expected Bernard Jackman’s side to be much better in the second-half of the season, given the sizeable financial investment in both management and playing staff and those words rang true.
The hosts started much the brighter of the two sides when they moved the ball downfield and forced an early penalty. But when Willie Schultz pulled his kick wide that was pretty much that for scoring chances.
Bective played an uncompromising brand of rugby and stifled any of Dundalk’s attempts to escape to the wings.
The visitors broke the lines on 21 minutes to go over for the first of their four tries.
The conversion gave them a 7-0 lead.
Bective went into the break 14-0 ahead as Dundalk suffered a triple blow of injuries which weakened their pack significantly.
Eoin Sullivan Jonathan Gray and Ben Mortimer all were forced off meaning that Doyle’s options were very much limited for later in the game.
Bective’s defence were not for moving and while Dundalk rarely got past the gainline they did themselves no favours with loose distribution which in many cases saw their attack stood up easily allowing Bective to repel the attacks.
On 55 minutes, after several phases the Dublin side went over for their third try and while the kick was missed then sense of inevitability was all too real.
While Bective would secure a try bonus before the end they failed to nail the conversion and the game finished 24-0 to the visitors who now move to within three points of Dundalk in second.
Dundalk were somewhat fortunate that Bective weren’t more clinical, two missed penalties in the first-half and the conversions in the second-half along with other chances would have compounded the misery for the Mill Road outfit.
The three injuries and bruised bodies will be a concern to Doyle as he tries to regroup his side before they travel to Seapoint on Saturday and attempt to bounce back from this setback.
Seapoint are second from bottom fighting a relegation battle and they were beaten 31-7 away to Gorey on Saturday so on paper it seems a welcome game to have. DUNDALK: Jonathan Gray, Seán Arrowsmith, John Smith; Eoin Sullivan, Ben Mortimer; Ciarán Lennon, Laurence Steen, Tiernan Gonnelly; Darragh Conroy, Gauthier Petit; Jonathan Williams, Willie Schutz; Andrew Williams, Ronan Greene, Robert Williams. Reps: Enda Murphy, Conor Williams, James McConnon, Robert Farrell, Patrick Reilly.
Photos: Aidan Dullaghan/Newspics