Valley forced to dig deep for victory

CLOGHER Valley had a fight on their hands against a resurgent Cooke side, who recently put Enniskillen out of the Junior Cup.

Clogher Valley travelled to Shaw’s Bridge in Belfast on Saturday to play Cooke who are sitting mid-table. The Valley are sitting second in the League, 11 points behind Instonians, but have played two less matches.

The sun shone through for the beginning of the game, but the pitch was heavy from the rain and snow over the last week. It wasn’t the conditions for a fast flowing match.

It was 18 minutes before the opening score. A Valley ruck 15 meters out, as scrum half Matthew Bothwell went to pass, he spotted that the Cooke defence were anticipating the move and left the narrowest of gaps.

This was all the young scrum half needed and darted in to score under the posts. Paul Armstrong added the conversion.
Cooke came back with a vengeance and dominated the game for the next 10 minutes. Wave after wave the Cooke forwards threw all they could at the Valley, who eventually ran out of defenders and the home side crossed the line to score their opening try. The conversion was good and both teams were level.

Five minutes before the interval, Callum Smyton broke from a scrum 40 meters out, making 20 meters before he off loaded to a flying Adam Brown who went past several Cooke defenders to score beside the posts. Armstrong added the conversion to send the visitors in with a 14-7 lead at half-time.

With the slight downward slope and the wind at their backs the traveling Valley supporters were expecting the next 40 minutes to be an easy push over.

In the previous encounter the Valley easily took the Cooke side apart in the second half, scoring 45 points.

However, nobody had told Cooke this was to happen and 10 minutes into the 2nd half, a Cooke scrum and several rucks later, gave the Cooke right winger enough space to cross the line in the corner. The conversion was unsuccessful, and the visitors still held a narrow lead 14 – 12.

For large periods of the second half, Cooke had possession, but never really penetrated the Valley defence.

At the 65 minute point a Valley scrum five meters out was won by the visitors, Callum Smyton picked up and drove for the line, despite two Cooke defenders hanging on to him, he crossed the line to score Valley’s third try.

At 19-12 points up, there was a little daylight between the two teams. With the game coming to a close, the Valley were awarded a scrum 15 meters out in the centre of the pitch.

Smyton broke from the base of the scrum and made 10 meters, up pops David Maxwell to take the ball from his number 8 and cross the line to give the Valley the 4th crucial try. Paul Armstrong added the conversion to give the Valley a 26–12 win over Cooke.

With a bonus try point, the Valley have added another 5 points to their league tally, still a bit behind the leaders Instonians. Cooke made the Valley fight for the win and it was a tough test.

The strength of this Valley side is that they can attack from anywhere on the pitch, their defence is solid, and their fitness is such that as the opposition tire towards the latter part of the match, these young players exploit any weaknesses.

Meanwhile at the Cran, the Valley seconds overcome Armagh thirds in a tough encounter, winning 14-7.

Next week, the Valley are away to Dromore, with the seconds at home to Bangor II.