Carlow hold on for bonus point win
Carlow secured a bonus point to beat Mullingar and jump up to third in the Division 1B table with a bonus point win at Oak Park on Sunday afternoon. Their second half performance will worry them though. They were clinical in the first half and secured the bonus point with five tries in the first half with Mullingar only able to get one try, but couldn’t keep up that same momentum in the second half; in fact they didn’t score once in the second half.
This is something that is becoming a habit. Against Gorey they looked comfortable and were cruising in the first half and were 29-0 up before struggling in the second half, against league leaders Dundalk last week, they were 15-5 up before losing 24-23. So it’s becoming a theme for Carlow and it’s something they’re going to need to fix if they’re going to get promoted straight back up to Division 1A at the end of the season.
Carlow got off to the perfect start when Sean Quinlan found a gap after five minutes and went in under the posts. The ever reliable Ben Crotty made no mistake in sending over the conversion. Four minutes later, Mullingar found a way back into the game as they were awarded a penalty. Matias Pfaff kicked over with ease.
However, their joy was short lived as Crotty fired over a penalty of his own to restore the seven point lead that the home side held. With 12 minutes gone in the first half, Carlow broke down the left hand wing and the ball was handed off to Matt Gray who went over in the corner. Crotty again made no mistake from the kicking tee, guiding the ball over from a tough angle.
With 16 minutes to go until half-time, the hosts picked up their third try of the game when a good attack saw Conor Treacy hand off to David McDermott who slipped into the gap 5 meters out to the right of the posts and went over. Crotty converted once again as Carlow got maximum points from the match.
Six minutes later, Mullingar came the closest they had all game to scoring. A penalty was kicked into the corner and a 5 meter lineout was mauled towards the line but they were held up in the left hand corner. They were punished for it when Carlow got the bonus point eight minutes before half-time. A lineout in the middle of the pitch was recycled out to the left hand side where Matt Gray was waiting to go over in the corner for his second try of the game. Crotty missed the ensuing conversion, his only blemish so far in the match.
In stoppage time, a Mullingar penalty was taken quickly and from about 5 meters out in front of the posts, a big pass saw the ball travel quite a distance into the arms of David Manning who went over to the right of the posts with nobody marking him and not a Carlow player in sight. Pfaff kicked over the conversion to reduce the deficit to 19 points.
However, Carlow weren’t in any mood to relent as Carlow won the ball in the middle of the field, Johnny Crossley made good ground, getting into the Mullingar 22 and it looked like he might get through and score but he was taken down. Carlow won the ball from the ruck and pushed forward, playing the phases and it got back to Crossley who managed to go over right underneath the posts for a fifth try for the hosts. Crotty converted to give Carlow a 26 point lead at the break.
With ten minutes to go, Mullingar won a penalty on the 5 meter line and took it quickly, recycling the ball out to the right wing where Manning was waiting to go down in the corner. In stoppage time, Mullingar won a lineout from Gareth Murray and it was recycled once again to the right where this time Darragh McCormack went over in the corner. The conversion was hit off the upright but went over. Mullingar pushed for a double bonus point try in the dying moments but failed.
Ben Crotty, Jonathan Crossley, Sean Quinlan, Evan Jordan, Daniel Gray, Matthew Dempsey, Alan Owens; Ross Byrne, Scott Neale, Tadhg Ronan, Wesley Shirley, John Lyons, David McDermott, John Murphy, Conor Tracey.
Evan Gordon, Patrick Rogers, Rhys Edghill, Cormac McElligott, Noah Cope.
Matias Pfaff, Aaron McGauran, Darragh Mccormack, Alan Brabazon, David Manning, Ben McCarthy, Conán O Hara; Edward Nally, Chris Fox, Ben Kershaw, Darach Geraghty, Luke Carton, Steven Walshe, Paul Maxwell, Daryl Quinn.
Gareth Murray, Niall Doonan, Paddy Doran, Niall Hannon, Artur Kumpin-Lazor.
