Newstalk Provincial Towns’ Cup

 

Newbridge 26
Arklow 8

 

Newbridge booked their place in the last eight of the Towns’ Cup with a solid performance against a dogged Arklow team.

 

The pace of the Newbridge backs on the counter-attack was too much for the Division 3 with winger Dave Hogan scoring a hat-trick of tries.

 

Early in the game Arklow made it clear they would be no pushovers as their pack mixed it up in the tight, forcing Newbridge to work hard for possession.

 

Knock-ons and errors also helped the Wicklow men’s cause before centre Ben Swindlehurst opened the scoring with penalty.

 

From the restart a fumble by Newbridge gave Arklow a territorial foothold and won a penalty which went over to tie the teams at the end of the first quarter.

 

Newbridge were exerting all the pressure and on the half hour full back Gavin Coffey collected a loose kick to launch a counter-attack at the Arklow line.

 

A quickly recycled ball came out to Swindlehurst who threaded a grubber kick through the defence for Hogan to touch down.

 

More pressure from Newbridge gave Swindlehurst the chance to add his second penalty before halftime for an 11-3 lead.

 

The second half started with Newbridge deep in the Arklow halftime, and the pack pushed Arklow off their own ball.

 

Out half Massey Tuhakaraina went right and wide with ball finding Hogan to powered over for his second try.

 

Hogan appeared on the left win to snatch his third try again from possession turned over from an Arklow scrum.

 

Niall Duggan at hooker then got his reward for an outstanding performance scoring a try from a forward’s drive off a line out.

With 15 minutes left on the clock Newbridge looked home and dry with a 26-3 lead.

 

Arklow were determined to have to the last word and in their best passage of play worked their down the pitch in a series of drives, to score the final try of the game.

 

 After easing past Roscrea and then Arklow in the opening rounds Newbridge have drawn red-hot favourites Boyne for a quarter-final clash in Rosetown.

 

Newbridge: Gavin Coffey, Neal Hogan, Ben Swindlehurst, Denis O’Callaghan, Dave Hogan, Massey Tuhakaraina, Peter Sutton, Mick Byrne, John Southern, Daryl O’Hora, Colin O’Brien, Terry Donnelly, Cillian O’Shea, Niall Duggan, Arjen Delaney. Subs: Karl Darragh, Ben Braithwaite, Liam Heavey, Gareth O’Reilly.