Understrength ‘Gannon girls fall to title chasing Cavan

WHILE the final score reads 36-7 to title chasing Cavan, their victory over Dungannon wasn’t quite as one-sided as that result would suggest.

Despite travelling with just 16 players in treacherous conditions on Sunday, Dungannon gave as good as they got in the early stages of the match, taking a 7-5 lead in the process thanks to a penalty try, earned after player of the match Laura Saunders quick tapped a penalty before being hauled down by the neck from behind by the home fullback.

But then things turned against the 14 players of Cavan, who engineered a score after a Dungannon misplaced pass to score under the posts. They then took advantage of some clever hooker play in the scrum to get a third try before the break to make it 17-7.

During the first half, 18-year-old flanker, Lydia Kelly, who was playing in the centre, produced an impressive performance for Dungannon and in the final 15 minutes of the encounter, another 18 year-old, Gabriela Vita made an eye-catching cameo off the bench.

Unfortunately, neither they, nor their 14 team-mates, who were starting to tire, could do anything to halt Cavan running in a few late scores to add gloss to their victory, which leaves the Tyrone side firmly in third place in the table.

“We’re still massively ahead of schedule,” said Dungannon boss, Conor McMeel.

“We’re going to finish third and if someone had told me before the season started we were going to finish third and finish their comfortably, I’d have taken their arm off.

“I’m very, very happy with how the scrum played today [Sunday]. You could come away downbeat because silly mistakes cost us the two tries that had us behind in the first half, but at the end of the game, I couldn’t have faulted the girls efforts.

“They kept going right to the end, it was a united performance from start to finish and I was delighted with how the scrum performed.”

Dungannon still have the Junior Cup to play for and they have been drawn away to Cavan on March 20th, while Omagh Accies will travel to Queen’s in the other last four encounter on the same day.

For that clash, McMeel hopes to have Hanna Rodgers, the Marley sisters, Niamh and Sarah, and new signing, ex-City of Derry vice-captain Donna Redmond available.

Dungannon

T Hutton, S Pogue, G Roper, R Todd, T McCormack, E Johnston, C Wilson (cpt), C McCance, L Saunders, J Murphy, J McKeown, L Kelly, A McKeown, N Dunwoody, S Lynch. G Vita.