Tullamore 33 – Portlaoise 19

Having lost to  Portlaoise earlier in the season by a point Tullamore felt that they had a point to prove.

From the kick off Tullamore controlled the game  and , centre Micky Keogh went through the Portlaoise cover and put the first points on the board.  Karl took his conversion.   Despite Portlaoise putting  pressure on, the Tullamore defence stood up and on a turnover ball in the ruck, the ball was let out through the backs to Oisin Cusack  who went over for the home team’s second try.  Again Karl added the two.  Just before half-time Portlaoise kicked a penalty deep into the Tullamore half  which was secured by Karl Dunne who cut the Portlaosie defence  bringing the rest of the backs with him,  he popped the ball to Declan Byrne and out to Micky Keogh  who put down for his second try. 

Tullamore started the second half as they finished  the first half, and after seven minutes, the Tullamore forwards did some great rucking deep  in the Portlaoise half, and when the ball came out to the backs  No. 15 Oisin Cusack went over for his second try.  Tullamore cleared the bench at this stage and gave everyone a run out.   Portlaoise  went the full length of the pitch when they intercepted a pass  and broke through the defence to put their first points on the board.

Tullamore bounced back and by keeping the ball in the tight they secured the ball in Portlaoise’s half and when the ball went out to Aaron Pierse he gave a  lovely side step to scorehis first try for Tullamore.  Aaron was unlucky not to add a second when he was stopped just on the line minutes later.

Portaloise  piled on the pressure for the remainder of the game and picked up two more tries to leave the final score 33 – 19.

This was a l great team performance and while the backs scored all the points, the forwards stepped up to the mark and rucked and mauled all day to allow the backs to secure clean ball. Adam Mangan had his best game as flanker and Oisin Cususk had another great day as full back. The two new additions to the squad Leonard Gavin and Kieran Guinan added strength and depth and with the Leinster Cup draw around the corner every position is up for graps.

Squad: Tiernan Mealiffe, Jerome Scully,  Kealan Feery, David Brophy, Leonard Gavin ,Adam Mangan, Glen Bagnall, Sean Milner, Frankie Deegan, Karl Dunne, Declan Byrne, Micky Keogh, Liam Varley, James Lalor, Oisin Cusack, Conor Martin, Ronan Daly, Anthony Kane, Mark Condron,  Aaron Pierse, Stephen Norton, Kieran Guinan, Laurin Ryan and Eoghan Galvin.