Gorey U13s rounded off a busy week with a tough game at home against Dundalk in the Leinster League playoffs.  A 1.30 kick-off on Saturday and it turned out to be a lovely warm spring day, the boys were well fired up as was evident from the pre-match battle cry. 

A strong start again, an Eoin pick with great support from Andrew, and Jack Robins was there to score the try after 3 minutes, the conversion attempt was just off target.

From the restart Dundalk made some strong carries. A big tackle into touch from Alex led to an untidy Gorey lineout, but Andrew was on hand to tidy up and his usual straight hard running resulted in him scoring in the corner. The conversion again proving out of range.

Dundalk were quite a big strong team and had more of the ball for the next few minutes but Gorey really stood up in defence. Notably a Jack tackle and a huge Thomas clear out, and separately an important Conn tackle and a Sam steal, relieving pressure.

Approaching halftime, a nice read from Conn saw him intercept and speed his way under the posts, Harry converting.

Halftime 17-0

A few minutes into the second-half, Gorey pressure was rewarded with a penalty kick to touch.  The resulting close-range line out was thrown to the front and Hugh crashed over in the corner, the conversion again just outside Harry's range.

Dundalk again came hard at Gorey, but their strong defensive effort wasn't overly troubled. About 10 minutes remained when a Dundalk clearance kick was charged down by Ryan H and Harry collected the loose ball to score under the sticks, adding the conversion. 

Dundalk again came back hard at Gorey for the last few minutes, but as could be seen by the overall look of exhaustion on the Gorey faces, they were not for breaking today.

Full time 29-0

Dundalk kindly agreed to play a further 10 minute friendly to allow the extended squad members some competitive game time. It took Gorey a few mins to settle in and Dundalk scored 2 quick trys.

The boys found their feet and came back strong, to a man stepping up and working hard. Some nice moments, notably from Donagh and Adam, resulted in 2 trys well taken by Ronan who had gotten close earlier and a lovely drop-kicked conversion from Donagh.

Dundalk just sneaked it with an individual try close to the end. 

Overall, today it was a massive effort from the entire team, a tough opponent held scoreless at home by honest hard work on both sides of the ball, particularly in defence, and scores well taken when the opportunities came. Our rucking and support play was intensified to cancel out Dundalk's jackal threat.

It was great to see the boys totally wrecked at full-time and testament to the challenge brought by Dundalk.

As mentioned, a great team performance today but a very deserved man of the match today was awarded to both Ryan H and Eoin for their massive tackle count, dogged defence and support play.

Up next a big challenge away to Tullow on Friday night.