Coolmine dig out victory in difficult conditions
Coolmine 10 - 3 Kilkenny

A tenacious Kilkenny side made Coolmine work hard for this home victory at Ashbrook, a single try in the first half deciding the outcome. Coolmine often threatened to overrun the visitors, but several opportunities to take a commanding lead were missed. Overall though Coolmine can be happy with this result - a third consecutive league win which leaves them sixth in the league on 24 points.

From the start the home team looked threatening, carrying well despite playing into the wind. An early move put Ian Flynn in space - he was unlucky with the bounce on a chip through which didn’t favour him. Ganly and Prunty were causing havoc in the lineout on the Kilkenny throw, and the Coolmine scrum was also on top all day. As a result, any ball that Kilkenny got was when they were on the back foot. This was the winning of the game for Coolmine.

A Coolmine surge for the line after ten minutes led to an infringement, which Conor Hayes punished from the resultant penalty. Not long after this Andrew Barry found space in the middle, and burst clear. The scrum-half might more profitably have backed himself to make the line but instead he looked for support. Dave Toole was in support and took the pass but was tackled and the opportunity was gone.

Not long afterwards Kilkenny equalised with a well-taken long range penalty. Coolmine had a chance to make it 6-3 with a penalty in front of the posts but the effort was skewed wide. Shortly after this, however, Coolmine regained the lead, mauling over the line for prop Ciaran Cawley to claim the try. The successful conversion made it 10-3.

Playing with the wind in the second period, Coolmine looked dominant but never managed to dispatch their opponents with another score. The half was played almost exclusively at the Kilkenny end, but good scramble defence from Kilkenny prevented more scores.

Sean Mackay went close to touching down from a chip-through by Hayes, and Andrew Barry was inches short after a blindside break. Alan Cousins finished some fine handling and went over at the corner despite the attention of two defenders, but the try was disallowed as the ref decided the corner flag had been struck first.

As conditions deteriorated badly the rain played its part and handling errors multiplied. To their credit, Kilkenny survived to the final whistle and take a bonus point for their efforts. Coolmine will be satisfied with four points after a solid win.

The Leinster League now takes a break for several weeks, but returns on February 24th when Coolmine will travel to Roscrea for their penultimate league game. The next fixture is at Ashbrook this Sunday, where the 1st XV will face Trinity's J1 side, in the first round of the Metro Cup. The winner of that clash will travel to Merrion Road to play Wanderers the following weekend.

Coolmine 1st XV: 15. Tom Lane, 14. Ian Flynn, 13. Sean Mackay, 12. Rory Farrell, 11. Alan Cousins, 10. Conor Hayes, 9. Andrew Barry, 8. Liam McGrath, 7. Harley Murray (capt.), 6. Ollie Prunty, 5. Dave Toole, 4. Niall Ganly, 3. Andrew Wood, 2. Robbie Savage, 1. Ciaran Cawley. Subs: Eoin Mullen, John McCullough, Niall O’Donoghue, Timmy Carroll.

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