Leinster League

Division 1A

Newbridge 15
Cill Dara 24

 

THE slump in league form for Newbridge continued in the derby fixture against Cill Dara who took the opportunity to give themselves a fighting chance of staying up in Division 1A.

Lack lustre in the first half Newbridge, conceded tries through the midfield to trail 12-0 at halftime and although they came to life after the break it was too little too late.

There was little consolation for injured captain Peter Sutton when he collected the John Conlon Memorial trophy won by Newbridge on the aggregate score between the two sides in this year’s league campaign.

Newbridge now face a considerable physical and psychological battle with just four matches left and a fragile eight-point gap between them at the bottom two.

Cill Dara were well worth their halftime lead thanks to the constant pressure exerted through a mobile and combative a pack with Newbridge forced into mistakes and penalties at the breakdown.

Both teams had chances in the opening ten minutes but the first try came as Cill Dara’s No.8 found a gap in the defence to score from 20 metres out.

From the knockout John Southern won possession and off-loaded to Gareth O’Reilly who went close to the line, but Newbridge were again penalised for an infringement.

Cill Dara had the most of the territory and after three line-outs in a row in the Newbridge half the first centre went through for the second try which was converted.

Newbridge started the second half well and this time it was Cill Dara who were penalised three times in a row with full back Denis O’Callaghan and centre Ben Swindlehurst combining well to go close.

Swindlehurst missed a chance to slot over and then Cill Dara struck back.

They secured possession from a line-out and on the third phase the first centre again found his way through for his side’s third try.

Newbridge kept fighting and Massey Tuhakraina produced a superb run from halfway to get close to the line but hooker O’Reilly was in support and touched down with Swindlehurst adding the conversion.

With a ten point gap and 25 minutes left Newbridge looked capable of staging comeback as the Cill Dara scrum began to struggle in the set pieces.

Swindlehurst added a penalty as the game entered the last quarter, but again Cill Dara hit back as Newbridge failed to failed to defend a set piece with a try off a third phase from a lineout.

The home team kept looking for the try to bring them back into the game opting to go for touch with three kickable penalties.
Tuhakaraina produced another break but Colin O’Brien just wasn’t able to hold the off-load.

From the scrum Robbie Waters disrupted Cill Dara’s possession and then John Southern took a quick penalty to get close to the line.

Although Southern was held up Jonny Downey followed up to make it 24-15.

Swindlehurst faced a tricky conversion to secure the loser’s bonus point and his effort faded to right and wide.

Newbridge: Denis O’Callaghan, Neal Hogan, Massey Tuhakaraina, Ben Swindelhurst, Dave Hogan, Sean Kelly, Robbie Waters, John Southern, Brendan Tierney, Brian Furey, Colin O’Brien, Terry Donnelly, Mark Southern, Gareth O’Reilly, Arjen Delaney. Subs used: Jonny Downey, Karl Darragh, Pat Lawlor.