Culliton Cup V Portarlington.
16th
March 2014.
NUIM Barnhall u17s are through to the Culliton cup semi-final after a hard fought victory over Portarlington.
The host team took the lead through a penalty after sustained pressure in the NUIM Barnhall half. This lead
was wiped out by the first try of the game from Blue Bulls Conor Flynn. His clever dummy pass opened
the Portarlington defence to score under the posts and give Malo O’Connor a fairly straight forward
conversion.
With the aid of the strong wind Portarlington upped the tempo to regain the lead and were successful
with another penalty. The NUIM Barnhall pack were having the fight of their lives especially in the scrum and
only for clever work from No. 8 Senna Howley and scrum half Aidan Condell at the back of their own
scrum the half time score of 7-6 could have been very different.
Barnhall started the second half at pace. A turnover ball by the pack resulted in fast ball to the backline.
Cormac Callaghan received the ball with a bit of space and the resulting run stepped inside the
covering defence for the Blue Bulls second try. The conversion came back off the post. Good work by the
Portarlington pack resulted in a try from close in but they were unable to convert leaving the score 12
-11. The remainder of the half was dominated by NUIM Barnhall forwards as they fought the Portarlington
pack for possession of the ball. NUIM Barnhall won four penalties as they competed strongly for the ball. Two
penalties converted by Malo O’Connor and a fine long distance effort by Neil Aspel closed out the game.
Final score; Portarlington 11, NUIM Barnhall 21
A hard fought game with very little between the two sides. The two sides will meet again this weekend
in the Leinster Div 1 League Semi Final.
