Carlow RFC look to turn league hurt into cup joy
County Carlow's Jonathan Crossley crosses over for Carlow's last try in their clash with Wexford Rinos in Gorey but that game ended in defeat
It was a hard call. Interviewing Carlow manager, Tom Crotty, over the phone as he made his way back from Wexford. He had just seen his side allow an eight-point slip and slump to a 30-28 defeat in the promotion-relegation play-off on Saturday in Gorey. As a result the Oak Park club lost their place in Leinster League Division 1A for next season.
In this light, how were they approaching the Provincial Towns Cup semi-final against Wicklow on Sunday?
“We had a discussion after the game. We will lick our wounds,” admitted Crotty.
“Lads are hurting after today. The focus is the Towns Cup on Sunday. We know we have performances in us. It is probably our fault, our biggest failure in that we haven’t been running two big performances in a row.” In the last round, Carlow won away from home and did so with a degree of panache. A 27-17 victory in Boyne was deserved.
“We had a super performance last week but against Wexford we had a poor enough performance in the first half and played well but we melted in the last ten minutes. We didn’t close out the game and that is another example of us not bringing performances in two games in a row.”
When Carlow and Wicklow met in the league, Carlow lost 31-10 in Wicklow but when the second round came around, Carlow got their revenge in Oak Park when winning 21-0.
Carlow have only one injury doubt. Scott Neale picked up a neck injury on Saturday against Wexford. The hooker will be on the treatment table this week. When they met in Carlow, Neale had moments in the game where he could rest. Crotty hopes this will not happen this time.
“We know Wicklow are a damned good side and there is not a lot between the two teams. They went to uncontested scrums in Carlow. We hope that will not be the case here as scrums are a fair part of the game. It gives you that launch if you have scrum dominance which we will try to have next weekend.”
