Ormond rue lack of bonus in latest win
RUGBY: Energia All-Ireland League Division 2A Round 7
Malone 10
Nenagh Ormond 24
Nenagh Ormond seniors kept their winning run intact on Saturday with what was their first ever win in Gibson Park, Belfast, home to the basement side in All-Ireland League Division 2A, Malone.
Despite their lowly placing, experience has taught Nenagh over the years that this venue is a hostile place to visit, and any points gained here are hard earned.
Malone were only recently relegated from Division 1A last season and Nenagh’s last visit to the Belfast ground several seasons ago coincided with Malone’s crowning as Division 2A champions at the time. With many of the players that featured then still in harness there is no doubting the capability of the Malone side if they can turn around their recent slump in form.
Ultimately, Nenagh Ormond had too many bad days out against them in the past to be caught napping and while far from perfect, the performance was enough to take a valuable four points home from Ulster.
It was a rocky start from Nenagh with two early penalties failing to find touch and handing back the initiative to the home side. However, at the third time of asking the kick made the touchline and a good set-piece move put Nenagh on the attack. Again though, execution let Nenagh down and from a midfield knock-on a scuffle developed leading to Nenagh going a man down with John Healy sent to the bin.
With Nenagh enjoying plenty of chances but little joy on the scoreboard, it was slightly against the run of play that they did in fact break the deadlock. Ben Pope has been making something of a habit of reading the passing intentions of the opposition and from a promising looking set play Malone will consider themselves unlucky to have had their pocket picked by the New Zealander who kicked ahead for Davy Gleeson to regather and score. Conor McMahon added the extras for a 7-0 lead.
Having had the boost of a score Nenagh began to express themselves a bit more and further pressure led to a penalty concession from the Belfast side. The kick from Conor McMahon was good and Nenagh’s lead stretched out to 10-0.
Shortly after the restart Nenagh again went on the attack. Again, Malone coughed up a penalty under pressure. This time Nenagh elected to tap and go.
The option proved the right one when the returning John Healy barreled over for another five-pointer. At 15-0 up the odds would have been shortening on a bonus point victory for Nenagh. Unfortunately, while Nenagh did add one more try through Colm Skehan, the real story of the remainder of the game was the succession of chances that Nenagh squandered in the Malone 22 to secure the bonus-point.
The Nenagh attack was held up short of the line on one occasion from a promising maul and on two further attacks where tries looked imminent they were undone by handling errors.
Either through Nenagh losing their patience a little or perhaps under pressure from a vociferous home support the trend of penalties from the referee seemed to swing towards the home side too and rather than a score for Nenagh to take maximum points the last try of the game came from the home team for a final score of 24-10.
Given their dominance of most facets of play Nenagh will perhaps feel a little disappointed to have come away with just four points but as mentioned earlier this is not a place where Nenagh have taken any joy in previous seasons, so a win is a win and on to the next challenge.
That challenge comes quickly as Nenagh return home to Lisatunny on Saturday for the visit of Wicklow outfit Greystones in the final home Energia League game of 2023. As the last opportunity to see Nenagh on home turf this year, we hope to see a huge local crowd out to shout the lads on to what will hopefully be their place at the summit of the league for Christmas. Kick-off is at 2.30pm in New Ormond Park.
TEAMS – Malone: Peter Caves; Mark Calvin, David McMaster, Nathan Brown, Andy Bryans; Adam Keating, Lee Steenson; Ben Halliday, Dan Kerr, Ricky Greenwood; Jacob Edwards, Jordan Magner; Zach Devine, Dave Cave, Matthew Crowther.
Reps: Daryl Maxwell, Josh Storey, Stuart Doddington, Shane Kelly, Matthew Rae.
Nenagh Ormond: Josh Rowland; David Gleeson, Willie Coffey, Patrick Scully, Conor McMahon; Ben Pope, Nicky Irwin; Paudie Burke, Dylan Murphy, Colm Skehan; Jake O’Kelly, Joe Coffey; John O’Flaherty, John Healy, Evan Murphy.
Reps: Sean Frawley, Jack O’Keefe, John Hayes, Charlie O’Doherty, Derek Corcoran.
Referee: Michael Forrestal