Portarlington 25 Arklow 6
Leinster League Division 2B
Portarlington have climbed to second in Division 2B of the Leinster League, beating Arklow with a four-try bonus point.
The win comes a week after Port survived a late scare to beat Garda Westmanstown in the rain.
Tries from Ross Doyle, Adam Kelly, Mark Petriw, and Man of the Match, Eoin Worrell, gave the hosts all five points – just rewards for their best performance of the season.
The hosts set the tone early when Ross Doyle scored a try inside the first two minutes.
Portarlington’s scrum had been creaking in the first half, but was much improved as the game went on, giving the perfect platform for their backs to attack.
Tries from Jack Kelly and Mark Petriw put the result beyond doubt and a try at the death from Eoin Worrell secured the bonus point.
Port’s next game is in two weeks, away to unbeaten Balbriggan.
SCORERS – Portarlington: Ross Doyle (try), Adam Kelly (try), Mark Petriw (try), Eoin Worrell (try), Kieran Hyland (Pen, Con)
PORTARLINGTON: Adam Kelly, Jack Walsh, Adam Lambkin, Ross Doyle, Eoin Worrell, Kieran Hyland, Darragh Perry, Toby Neilson-Dry, Warren Murray, Jack Mallon, Kyle Stacey, Stephen Oakley, Aaron Ryan, Fintan Murphy, Conor Perry. Replacements: Conor Houlihan, Oisin Mooney Sherlock, Dylan Stronge, Mark Petriw, Ben Dooley, Jason Keogh, Damien Sheedy
| POS | TEAM | PLD | W | D | L | PF | PA | DIFF | BP | BP 4 TRY | BP L | PTS |
| 1 | Edenderry | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 74 | 20 | 54 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 13 |
| 2 | Portarlington | 4 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 67 | 70 | -3 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 13 |
| 3 | Balbriggan | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 113 | 13 | 100 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 9 |
| 4 | Birr | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 47 | 49 | -2 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 7 |
| 5 | Roscrea | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 40 | 34 | 6 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 5 |
| 6 | Garda Westmanstown | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 24 | 28 | -4 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 2 |
| 7 | Arklow | 4 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 33 | 184 | -151 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Portlaoise 10 New Ross 22
Leinster League Division 2A
Portlaoise’s poor start to the season continued at home to New Ross – their fourth consecutive defeat in Division 2A.
They welcomed fellow strugglers, New Ross to Togher on Sunday afternoon in the hopes of getting a win on the board and gaining some momentum.
It wasn’t to be for Portlaoise though as the visitors scored two late tries to win the game.
Portlaoise’s next game is the trip to Wexford Wanderers in two weeks. The south-easterners got their first win of the season today away to Coolmine.
Scorers: Harry Lalor (Try), Jack Reddin (Con, Pen)
PORTLAOISE: John Scully; Jamie Holohan, Thomas Martin, Brian Dunne, Killian O’Connor; Mark Mullally, Jack Reddin; Paddy Coss, Harry Lalor, Brian Flannery; Ronan Donlon, Mark Sherlock; Craig Telford, Matthew Cremin, Robin Foot. Replacements: Cathal Farrell, Shane Reilly, Sean Hennessy, Joe O’Toole, Brandon Kelly Nolan.
| POS | TEAM | PLD | W | D | L | PF | PA | DIFF | BP | BP 4 TRY | BP L | PTS |
| 1 | DLS Palmerston | 4 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 146 | 50 | 96 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 19 |
| 2 | Clondalkin | 4 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 106 | 53 | 53 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 18 |
| 3 | Coolmine | 4 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 103 | 103 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 10 |
| 4 | New Ross | 4 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 55 | 76 | -21 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 9 |
| 5 | North Kildare | 4 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 55 | 59 | -4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 8 |
| 6 | Wexford Wanderers | 4 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 77 | 95 | -18 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 6 |
| 7 | Newbridge | 4 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 67 | 119 | -52 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 |
| 8 | Portlaoise | 4 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 73 | 127 | -54 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 2 |
Leinster Women’s League – Division 2
Portlaoise’s fixture with CYM in Terenure was postponed. The next time they will be in action is in two weeks, as they travel to Portarlington to face local rivals, PortDara Falcons.
The mouth-watering tie, kicks off at 1 pm on Sunday, 6th of November. PortDara are in fine form, which should make for a great encounter.
Balbriggan 24 PortDara Falcons 29
The Falcons are flying high as PortDara soared to second in Division 2 of the Leinster Women’s League with a tremendous win away to Balbriggan. PortDara scored five tries to claim a bonus-point victory and leapfrog Balbriggan on the table.
Francie Fitzpatrick touched down for her second try in as many games, while Orla O’Donavan scored two tries having scored in the win last week as well.
Superstar fullback, Eve Kehoe continues to impress, bagging a brace for the second consecutive week.
The Falcons have a week’s rest to prepare for the visit of Portlaoise to Lea Road in two weeks.
SCORERS – PortDara Falcons: Orla O’Donovan (Try x2), Eve Kehoe (Try x 2), Francie Fitzpatrick (Try), Hannah Mulcahy (Con x 2)
PORTDARA FALCONS: Eve Kehoe, Rebecca Rowe, Orla O’Donovan, Niamh O’Neill, Evie Dickinson, Hannah Mulcahy, Kate Tynan, Sinead O’Rourke, Francie Fitzpatrick, Karina McLoughlin, Amy Dempsey, Lorraine Byrne, Ruth White, Jessica Weiss, Celeste Cannon. Replacements: Michelle Maher, Nicky Mahoney, Chloe Ready, Andrea Fitzpatrick, Máiréad Scully, Fiona Blood, Aoife O’Donovan, Hanna Kearon.
| POS | TEAM | P | W | D | L | PF | PA | DIFF | TF | BP | BP 4 TRY | BP L | PTS |
| 1 | Naas | 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 63 | 58 | 5 | 10 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 11 |
| 2 | PortDara Falcons | 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 82 | 48 | 34 | 14 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 11 |
| 3 | Balbriggan | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 81 | 46 | 35 | 13 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 8 |
| 4 | Clondalkin | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 46 | 46 | 0 | 8 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 7 |
| 5 | Mullingar RFC | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 38 | 36 | 2 | 6 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 5 |
| 6 | CYM | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 12 | 43 | -31 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 |
| 7 | Portlaoise | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 5 | 50 | -45 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Portlaoise 27 Arklow 24
Leinster U-14 Girls League
The Portlaoise U-14 girls took on their counterparts Arklow in Togher on Saturday.
Portlaoise had a huge win in Navan in an earlier round, but this test was a lot tougher!
Molly Kelly got proceedings underway in what was a sunny day with a strong breeze blowing across the pitch. Portlaoise were quickly on the attack.
In what was to be a feature of this match, some fine running from Lily Brophy and Ruby Maunsell through the middle lead to Portlaoise drawing first blood with Molly Kelly going over the try line into the corner giving the home side the lead after five minutes.
Portlaoise continued their strong running, but Arklow eventually came back into the game scoring their first try after 15 minutes and a fine conversion gave them the lead.
Portlaoise began to dominate possession again and while Arklow were putting in some serious tackles it was Rachel Connolly-Ferguson who broke the line to race through giving the home side the lead again.
Rachel wasn’t finished there. A few minutes later she broke another tackle and showing a clean pair of heels to the opposition scored her second try and Portlaoise’s third.
Another powerful run by Saffron Adams straight through the middle despite close attention of numerous Arklow players could not prevent her from crossing the line for another Portlaoise try. This one was converted by captain Elisha Gilligan.
Portlaoise were leading 22-5 and were cruising at this stage all aided from a formidable pack which included Faye Scully, Jessica Delaney, Daisy Whitten and Chloe Kavanagh who were preforming try saving tackles and driving the Arklow girls back at every opportunity they got.
Their resilience was broken just before half time when Arklow ran through their second try of the game to leave a half time score of 22-12 with everything to play for in the second half!
It was Arklow’s turn to start fast and that they did on several occasions they broke the line only to me met by Freya Stanley who was stopping them in their tracks each time.
Portlaoise could not contain this level of attack for much longer. Aoibheann Conroy was stretching the game with her running on the wings but as Portlaoise began to replace tired bodies from the bench, Arklow ran in two tries of them converted and they now led 22-24!
While Portlaoise took time for the subs to settle, settle they did!
To say the level of tackling from this age group was sublime would be an understatement, both sides continued with an impressive running game only to be met with brilliant tackle after brilliant tackle from both sides, but it was Portlaoise who began to lift their game driving Arklow back into their own half.
Camped on their five-metre line Emily Harvey through a great Pass to Moll Jane Dempsey who rounded an Arklow player to touch down for Portlaoise’s fifth try of the afternoon and now they had the lead, again.
Three points up with three minutes to go and they seemed like an eternity!
Arklow pressed hard, ripping the ball multiple times from Portlaoise Players.
Desperate to regain the lead only to be met by tackles from Erin Powell, Kate Ging, and Tara Peavoy. Arklow were now inside the Portlaoise 22 and looking dangerous.
Time was up but they still had the ball, and they were . They whipped the ball out to the wing and what looked like a certain try was stopped by Molly Jane Dempsey a metre short, with the help of Keelin O’Brien and Rachel Hovendon they managed push the Arklow player into touch and with that the final whistle came.
SEE ALSO – New club job for former Laois football manager John Sugrue
