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UBL vs. Old Crescent Match Report |
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Ulster Bank League Bective vs. Old Crescent January 28th 2012 Match report thanks to Conor Donnelly Bective Rangers recorded a 29-3 victory over Munster side, Old Crescent, in a bitterly cold Donnybrook last Saturday. The match marked the start of five home matches out of the remaining seven games for Rangers and they looked to take advantage of those home comforts against an Old Crescent side that was going into the contest two places behind Bective in the league. The game was a scrappy affair, with both teams struggling to string together multiple phases of attacking play for much of the early minutes of the half. Despite the lack of attacking fluidity the away side had a chance to open the scoring on seven minutes through the boot of fullback, Cregan, after Bective ill discipline resulted in a Crescent penalty. However, the fullback pushed his kick wide and the game remained scoreless. It wouldn’t be until the nineteenth minute before either side enjoyed a sustained period of possession. Rangers were that side. Inside centre, Alex Kelleher, made a powerful run gaining the hard yards and fending off tacklers through the middle of the Crescent defence. With play now in the away twenty-two, Bective moved the ball out wide to Wing, Ferdia Kenny, but unfortunately for the former Pres. Bray stalwart, the touch line was closer than the try line and he was bundled out of play.
But Bective did not leave empty handed as play was brought back for a penalty and outhalf, Georoid O’Grady, duly slotted the ball between the posts to make it 3-0 to the home side. On twenty five minutes O’Grady’s boot further extended the lead to 6-0 after an Old Crescent player somewhat cynical knocked down a Bective pass inside his own twenty-two. With Rangers in the ascendency, Crescent began to wilt under the pressure and thus their discipline deserted them in their attempts to stop Rangers. O’Grady once again made the away side pay for their infringement with an audacious penalty kick from a very acute angle near the touchline with the ball resting on the tram lines. The ball sailed over the bar to give Bective a 9-0 lead and O’Grady the well deserved plaudits. Momentum was now with Rangers, but it soon was stopped in its track following a nasty collision between Bective’s Ferdia Kenny and Crescent’s Second Row, Tali Tona. Both men were chasing a bouncing ball in midfield. Kenny ran into the back of Tali Tona who went to ground in an attempt to secure the ball. Kenny was sent hurtling in to the air landing hard on the dry Donnybrook pitch. Following lengthy treatment on the pitch Kenny was able to walk off the pitch but was not able to return due to a lower leg injury. From the restart Crescent fashioned their first real attacking chance of the half, working their way into the Bective twenty-two following a penalty. Crescent found themselves inches away from the try line after runners from deep burst through the Rangers line However, Bective refused to let Crescent advance any further. Through a combination of hard hitting defence and flat footed attack the visitors were moved backwards before finally knocking the ball on to bring the first half to a close and leave Bective leading 9-0. Buoyed by their near success at the end of the first half, Crescent started the second half positively and once again worked their way into the Bective twenty-two. This time the visitors converted the pressure into points when they were awarded a penalty in front of the posts to make the scoreboard read 9-3 in favour of the home side. The contest was evenly balanced during the opening salvos of the second half, but soon turned into Bective’s favour when, with forty two minutes gone, Crescent were reduced to fourteen men following out half, Mullally’s high tackle on a Rangers player. The crescent out half could do nothing but watch as in his absence Bective pressed home their advantage adding ten more points through the boot of Georid O’Grady and a try by Alex Kelleher off a well worked move from a scrum deep inside the Crescent twenty-two, By the time Mullally returned the scoreboard now read 19-3 to Bective. Undaunted by the deficit, Crescent searched hard for the try that would get them back in the game. That try nearly happened on sixty minutes following some poor tackling by Rangers. Crescent had an overlap out wide only to waste the opportunity with poor passing. The game was now entering the last ten minutes when the boot of Georoid O’Grady once again proved profitable, putting the game out of reach of the visitors with a penalty to stretch the Bective lead to 22-3. With only pride left to play for the men from Munster made one final push for a consolation try, but the cutting edge in attack that was blunted for most of the game once again remained so for Crescent as once again they failed to find a way over the Bective line. Instead the visitors turned the ball over in the Rangers twenty-two, the ball fell into the grateful arms of Bective substitute, John McMahon, who raced away from the desperate Crescent defenders for a try and a 29-3 victory for Rangers. |
