Malone prevail in a close encounter with Galway Corinthians

ALL IRELAND LEAGUE: Malone 22 – Galway Corinthians 20
We talk about the turnover in personnel playing for club teams in the UBL. Comparing the squads from the fixture in February 2017 at Gibson Park Malone had retained 10/20 players and Corinthians 8/20 for the game at Gibson Park on Saturday. One noticeable inclusion in the Corinthians starting xv was Connacht academy out half Kieran Joyce who benched for Malone in the earlier fixture. Looking at the Corinthians squad it included 8 members of the Connacht senior squad/academy and sub academy with the rest of the players having played under age rugby up to and including under 20 level for Connacht. We could understand why the Corinthians officials were looking confident they could surprise the league leaders on their home turf.

Unavailability and injuries ruled out Matthew Dalton, Joe Dunleavy, Phil Lucas, Dave Cave, Ryan Clarke and Phil Eadie. Changes included Captain Ross Todd moving to number 8 with Stuart Doddington coming in on the flank with James McAllister replacing the unavailable Matt Dalton in the second row. Max Porter was called up from the seconds to cover the bench.

Corinthians had the advantage of a strong breeze as Malone kicked off. From an early lineout Michael Shiels provided clean ball for Ben Halliday, Callum Smith and Shane Kelly to carry ball into the Corinthians twenty two. A switch move involving Smith and winger Rory Campbell cutting the line produced an early try for the winger with Campbell adding the points to give his team an early 7 – 0 lead after 3 mins. Corinthians came back to win a penalty on the halfway line. Up stepped Kieran Joyce to strike a superb penalty to narrow the Malone lead to 7 – 3. The early collisions at the breakdown were to have an impact as centre Michael Cartmill was forced to leave the pitch with an ankle injury to be replaced by Josh Pentland. Both defences were dominating with play confined to the middle of the pitch between the twenty two’s. The contact area resulted in Cooper and Owens suffering early knocks. Another penalty to Corinthians from 55 metres out was struck beautifully by Joyce with the ball coming up just short. Both out halves were using their kicking to create field positions for their teams. There followed a sustained period off pressure from Corinthians in the second quarter as Malone were forced to defend their line with Connacht hooker Pat O’Toole looking particularly dangerous with his strong carries. Somehow the Malone team held their line. Another break by O’Toole forced Malone to concede a penalty twenty two metres out for Joyce to narrow the Malone lead to 7 – 6. Both Captain Ross Todd and his back row partner Stuart Doddington kept putting their bodies on the line as they received treatment for their efforts to quell the Corinthians domination. Corinthians replaced their 6 Joe Campbell with Mark McDermott who immediately made an impact with two early carries. No further chances were created to leave the halftime score 7 – 6 in favour of the home side.

Malone Head coach Paddy Armstrong made changes at the start of the second half with Lee Barlow replacing Ben Halliday in the front row and Max Porter coming on for Stuart Doddington in the back row. Again defences were to the fore as the intensity of the collisions at the breakdown area led to stoppages for treatment to players. Corinthians seemed to be dominating this area with field position the goal of both out halves. Malone were being starved of ball to unleash their talented backline with Callum Smith, Nathan Brown and Josh Pentland being used in a defensive role to repel the strong carrying by the Corinthians forwards. In the first Malone attack of the second half Josh Pentland and Nathan Brown combined for the latter to offload and put full back Jack Owens in for a superb try with Campbell unable to add the conversion to extend the Malone lead to 12 – 6. Back came the Corinthians team to exert a lot of pressure on the Malone line with the home side forced to concede penalties. One penalty too many led to second row James McAllister being shown a yellow card. Instead of kicking for the posts Corinthians went for the scrum to create an overlap for prop Craig Hansberry to touch down with Joyce adding the points to give Corinthians a 13 - 12 lead at the end of the third quarter for the first time in the match. The visitors sensed they were in position to push on and close out the match. They made three forward changes with Shane Faulkner, Adam Burke and the experienced Colin Rafferty coming on. Malone replaced scrum half Shane Kelly with Connor Spence. Despite being down to 14 players it was the Malone team led by Josh Pentland who once again carved open the Cortinthians defence to put Jack Owens in for another excellent try with Campbell adding the conversion to increase their lead to 19 – 13. Malone Captain Ross Todd had to leave the pitch after being treated several times to be replaced by hooker Scott Finlay who has become used to his familiar role of slotting into the back row in recent games. With ten minutes remaining McAllister returned to the pitch. Another score of any description would force Corinthians to have to score twice. The front row of Lee Barlow, Dan Kerr and the impressive Peter Cooper were having to with stand a lot of pressure in the set piece. Their efforts won penalties for Malone to kick deep into the Corinthians twenty two. Another penalty allowed Campbell to increase the Malone lead to 22 – 13 with 4 minutes remaining. The Corinthians axis of Ireland under 20 number 8 Sean Masterson and his Connacht half back pairing of Stephen Kerins and Kieran Joyce had other ideas as hooker Pat O’Toole led another assault on the Malone line with O’Toole touching down on 80 mins and Joyce adding the points to reduce the Malone lead to 22 – 20. The difficulty for Malone was that they just could not get their hands on the ball as it looked as if the Connacht side would snatch victory. Another surge by their number 8 Sean Masterson looked a certain try only for the ball to be spilled as the referee Ken Imbusch signalled the end to a enthralling game of rugby.

Somehow Malone who had less then 30% of possession and territory throughout the match took advantage of their few opportunities to come away with the points. It was all about the 20 players the coaches had selected to represent their club on Saturday. Yesterday these players defied the odds to defeat a very good Corinthians side. The forwards led by the front row of Ben Halliday, Lee Barlow, Dan Kerr and Peter Cooper gave it everything. In second rows Josh Davidson and James McAllister you have two players who do so much of the unseen work that goes unrecognised. Second row/back row Michael Shiels is another one of these players. Captain Ross Todd and Stuart Doddington gave everything before being forced to leave the pitch with replacements Max Porter and Scott Finlay having a big impact.
Malone have one of the best attacking backlines in Ulster club rugby. Shane Kelly and Connor Spence have been consistent in their performances at scrum half and along with Callum Smith have one of the most intelligent out halves in Ulster club rugby to play alongside. Malone are also fortunate to have three centres in Nathan Brown, Josh Pentland and Michael Cartmill who have been outstanding both in attack and defence this season. The three quarters of Rory Campbell, David McMaster and Jack Owens dealt with the kicking game employed by Corinthians out half Kieran Joyce. Despite the few opportunities they had to run with the ball Jack Owens (2) and Rory Campbell (1) scored the teams three tries. My man of the match would have to go to centre Nathan Brown. His willingness to carry ball and stand up to the Corinthians onslaught in defence was outstanding,

Injuries are starting to pile up for the squad and the loss of Ulster forwards Matt Dalton and Joe Dunleavy will be missed with British & Irish Cup commitments next weekend likely to deprive Malone of Peter Cooper and Jack Owens for the return game against Galway Corinthians. Every game is important. How nice would it be for the 1st xv to win and enter the Xmas break top of Div 2A. We wish them well.

Malone team 1. Ben Halliday,2. Danny Kerr, Peter Cooper, 4. James McAllister, 5. Josh Davidson, 6. Michael Shiels, 7. Stuart Doddington, 8. Ross Todd (Captain), 9. Shane Kelly, 10. Callum Smith, 11. David McMaster, 12. Nathan Brown, 13. Michael Cartmill, 14. Rory Campbell, 15. Jack Owens, 16. Scott Finlay, 17. Lee Barlow, 18. Max Porter, 19. Connor Spence, 20. Josh Pentland.

It was 13th game unlucky for Malone seconds this season as their demanding fixture programme caught up with the playing squad. After losing their Junior Cup semi final 15 -14 to holders Ballynahinch seconds last week it was back to league action in Conference league 2. Managers Davy Heron and Harry McMurtry were forced to make a number of changes for the Conference league match at UUC.
Players unavailable for yesterday included Jack McMurtry (Injured), Max Porter, Andy Bryans, David Irvine, Chris Rowan, Callum Harkin, Callum Jeffrey, Neil Alcorn, Stuart Doddington, James McAllister and Jonny Ogilby.

Sadly the team lost out 39 -15 at UUC to drop four points behind Conference league Div 2 leaders Grosvenor with a game in hand. Points scorers for Malone seconds Austen Blackburn and Tom Dullage 1 x try each. Mark O’Connor kicked 1 x con and 1 x pen.

Manager Davy Heron was unavailable to travel with the team after undergoing surgery last week with Harry McMurtry taking charge. In summing up the performance Harry felt poor defending cost the seconds on a good day and a good playing surface. Captain Ricky Greenwood was man of the match and kept the team going throughout the 80 mins. Austen Blackburn carried strongly and along with Tiarnan Dillon and Tom Dullage were the stand out players. The lack of experienced players in the side had a big impact on the outcome.

The Malone seconds game with Randalstown 1st xv has been brought forward from Saturday to this Thursday night at Gibson Park with a 7.30PM kick off. With games remaining against Lisburn at home on 16th, Limavady away 23rd and Ballymoney away on the 30th December the second xv still remain in contention for the Conference league 2 title.

Malone seconds: 1. Austen Blackburn, 2. Connor Kelly, 3. Ricky Greenwood (Captain), 4. Aaron Mckechnie, 5.Tiarnan Dillon, 6. Jonny Caskey, 7. Dean Hewitt, 8. Tom Dullage, 9. James Rae, 10. Mark O’Connor, 11. Hugh Thomson, 12. Steven Donaghy, 13. Ryan Spence, 14. Jamie Ashenhurst, 15. Bruce Duff. No replacements.

I was disappointed to hear that Malone thirds suffered a heavy 68 - 0 defeat away to unbeaten Dromore seconds at Barban Hill. After a solid start to their season the thirds have lost their last three games in the league and Crawford Cup.

Malone fourths conceded their league match away to Limavady seconds after being unable to field a team.

You can see the impact of the top three teams being successful in their league and Cup competitions. With injuries starting to impact on the top two teams this filters down to the thirds and fourths. The challenge for Malone rugby club is to increase the number of adult players playing at the club for next season.

There will be no Malone teams at home on Saturday 9th December.The 1st xv are in Galway. The 2nds play on Thursday night with the thirds having a weekend off. The fourths are at Ophir with Malone 5ths playing Donaghadee seconds at Donaldson Park on Thursday night with a 7.30PM kick off.

Please get along to support the seconds at home to Randalstown 1sts and the 5ths away to Donaghadee seconds on Thursday night.