Portlaoise 28 Carlow 0
Leinster U-16 Rugby League Quarter Final
The business end of the season arrived on Saturday last as Portlaoise welcomed Carlow to Togher for the league quarter-final.
In good conditions, the home side hit the ground running and four tries in a confident first half performance was enough to see them progress to the semi-final.
Matt Cunningham got proceedings underway and the visitors were under pressure straight away as they tried to get out of their own half.
Shane Foley and Cormac Drea forced Carlow to turn over the ball and Kyle Moore got quick ball to Fionn Mullen and then Declan Iguma who both made good ground up the middle.
Cunningham then chipped in behind the defence and Donnchadh Carroll was on the same page to gather the ball and sprint clear for a try under the posts. The extras were added for a 7-0 lead after just 3 minutes.
Carlow settled into the game and put some good phases together before out-half Franz Buitelaar kicked deep into the Portlaoise 22.
Jamie Shiel and Eoghan Kennedy dealt with the danger before Cunningham cleared the lines to halfway.
Portlaoise got a foothold in the Carlow half and a continued period of pressure resulted in Portlaoise doubling their lead midway through the half.
Conor Deegan, Stephen Conroy and Bill Rigney were aggressive in supporting strong carries from Mullen and Eanna Moynihan.
With the Carlow defence trying to put out fires around the ruck, Moore got the backline moving with Aaron Fitzpatrick and Carroll keeping width in the attack before Daniel Whelan cut back inside on a lovely line to touch down under the posts once again. Cunningham obliged to push the lead out to 14-0.
Matters didn’t get any better for Carlow 5 minutes later when Moynihan added his name to the scoresheet for his team’s third try.
From a lineout just inside the Carlow half, Deegan went to the playbook for a variation on the throw and it caused enough disruption to allow Moynihan gather possession and power his way in under the posts. The flags were raised and it was 21-0 to the home side after 20 minutes.
Carlow rallied and had a good spell of territory and possession but couldn’t make it count on the scoreboard despite good breaks by centres Freddie Keogh and James Slattery.
On the stroke of halftime Portlaoise produced their best rugby for a well-worked team try.
From a scrum on the Carlow 10m line, a fine move saw centres Carroll and Whelan combine to perfection and finished with Carroll once again involved to cross the white wash out on the left.
The conversion was good and the home side had a 28-0 lead at the break.
The second half was a much more even affair with both sides having spells of dominance.
First it was Carlow’s turn with Jack Dowling and Luke Cahill making notable breaks while, for the home side, Paul Byrne kept probing around the fringes with Cullen Kirwan making good ground on the left wing.
The new front row of Ricky Lyons, David Allely, and Mark Ging were getting through a lot of work with Darragh Maher and Dan Murrell providing support behind them but the Carlow defence held firm.
So too did the scoreboard as the referee blew the final whistle to send Portlaoise through to the semi-final.
PORTLAOISE: Eoghan Kennedy, Aaron Fitzpatrick, Daniel Whelan, Donnchadh Carroll, Jamie Shiel, Matt Cunningham, Kyle Moore, Shane Foley, Conor Deegan, Fionn Mullen, Stephen Conroy, Bill Rigney, Cormac Drea, Declan Iguma, Eanna Moynihan (c). Replacements: David Allely, Dan Murrell, Ricky Lyons, Cullen Kirwan, Paul Byrne, Mark Ging, Darragh Maher.
