Provincial Town’s Cup – Quarter Final
Edenderry 0 Roscrea 25
This was a great all-round display by Roscrea who played perhaps, their best rugby of the season, and won rather easily to get into the Towns Cup semi-final for the first time in a good few years.
The Roscrea pack and particularly the front row of the two Joes, with John in the middle, were outstanding and no matter what Edenderry tried they could not match the Roscrea pack. Malachy Maher and Wes Carter were dominant in the lineout and guaranteed a good supply of ball to scrumhalf Cormac Bulfin and out half Denis Moloney. On a terrible cold, wet miserable day the half backs were outstanding and Denis Moloney kicked very astutely and he kept Edenderry on the back foot all the time. Despite the conditions the ball handling of the backs was of a high quality. Of course there were some mistakes and dropped passes and knock on’s but in general Roscrea played the conditions a lot better than Edenderry and handled the ball a lot better.
Roscrea dropped off and were immediately on the offensive. Aaron Carroll’s attempted penalty from 35 metres dropped short. Willie Maher was up like a shot on the attempted clearance and Edenderry were hard pressed to scramble the ball into touch. Roscrea continued to press and Edenderry were stretched. They held out until the 18th minute when Aaron Carroll opened the scoring with a penalty after Paul McNamara chased a Cormac Bulfin kick to force the infringement. Edenderry got more into the game after this, but could not find a way through the Roscrea defense. Denis Moloney put in a good clearance and Roscrea were up to get a rolling goal going into Edenderry’s 22. Joe Maher nearly burst over but was hauled down just short. The ball was re-cycled and Joe Smith nearly got in. Edenderry somehow cleared to touch. Malachy Maher claimed the lineout and again the Roscrea pack drove for the line but the home defense held firm and the ball was cleared to half way. Daryl Carney made a great run and found his brother David in support and he in turn found Joe Smith at his shoulder and the prop forward got to five metres. A scrum followed and Edenderry were penalised, with Roscrea getting a penalty try and Aaron Carroll adding the two points. Edenderry dropped off but the ball did not go ten metres. Roscrea opted for scrum on the half way and the visitors were attacking once again. A quick ball from scrumhalf Cormac Bulfin to Denis Moloney saw the out half kicking a sweet drop goal from 30 metres to give Roscrea a 13 point half time lead.
Full match report in this week’s Tipperary Star.
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Weather for Tipperary
Friday 24 May 2013
Today
Cloudy
Temperature: 5 C to 13 C
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