Athy romp to Hosie Cup victory
Athy celebrate their win Photo: Aisling Hyland
The final game to take place on Sunday was the highly anticipated match-up between Athy and Clondalkin in the Hosie Cup.
The first half was well contested between the two teams in contrast to the scoreline. Athy struck first with three tries in the first half. From the beginning of the match Athy bombarded the Clondalkin players with massive carries from the likes of the number eight and captain Tadhg Foley to make gains.
They reaped the rewards of their hard work early on as the Athy pack piled in on the try line for their first score, the missed conversion gave them a lead of five points, but it was only the beginning.
Winger David Downey scored for Athy as more quick hands and set moves unleashed the winger one on one with his opposite number, he made light work of slipping past his man before scoring for an easy conversion for Darragh Farrell to kick.
Clondalkin didn’t lie down either and came back at Athy all guns blazing. Their fly half got them their first points on the board, but a failed conversion meant they missed out on the extra two points.
Clondalkin now with a new spirit fought even harder against Athy’s stronger defence. There were hard hits and tackles being let into each other, then, flanker Thomas Duffy attacked space in front of him and crashed over the whitewash for Clondalkin for another massive 5 points, a made conversion by Pulusiatina Toeoanna with number 13 on his back gave Clondalkin belief.
Athy weren’t phased by Clondalkin’s two tries; fly half Craig Miller produced a moment of class with an outstanding 50-22 kick to set up Athy in an attacking position again. Outside centre Cathal Fennessey weaved his way into the end zone for Athy’s third try and put down Clondalkin yet again, another Darragh Farrell conversion left a try between the sides at halftime with a score of 19 points to 12 in favour of Athy.
Athy then ran away with the match after the restart with a flurry of tries from an array of scorers. Craig Miller topped off his display today with an interception on halfway only to run untouched under the posts for Farrell to convert.
Cathal Fennessey bagged his second try in the second half as well as he sold the Clondalkin defenders with a dummy then sliding in under the posts for another routine kick for Farrell.
Things really didn’t go according to plan for Clondalkin especially when full back Liam Redmond received a yellow for a high tackle in the second half on an Athy player.
Farrell then slotted a penalty for Athy to really push past Clondalkin. After his penalty kick, Farrell ran at the Clondalkin defence with aggression and broke through the middle. Then selling the remaining defender with a dummy to run it in for another routine conversion for himself to kick.
Then went from bad to worse for Clondalkin was substitute Owen Blake was shown a red card for an extremely dangerous high tackle on the Athy winger, reducing the already behind Clondalkin to just 14 men to try and keep up with Athy.
Athy only got stronger when they made substitutions to replace tiring players. Subs such as Karol Donoghue, Patrick Julian and Ciaran English helped Athy close out the game with Karol Donoghue putting in a shift at hooker with consistent straight throws.
Winger Culann Carbery also put his name of the scoresheet scoring a try when he received an offload from Craig Miller who kept finding gaps in the Clondalkin defence.
Clondalkin’s day kept getting worse as winger Karl Jebb was sin binned for cleaning an Athy player out of the air while contesting under a high ball.
Finally, substitute Ciáran English finished under the posts for Athy’s final try of the game after good team play and lines breaks finished with an extraordinary no look offload to English to seal the deal with Athy running out comfortable winners on a scoreline on 57 points to 17.
ATHY: Aaron Rowan, Shane Horgan, Teodor Ciobanu; Kevin Downey, Connor McDonnell; Jack Henry, John Sheedy, Tadhg Foley(c); Eoin Farrell; Craig Miller; David Downey; Dara Farrell, Cathal Fennessy; Culann Carbery, James Harriss. Replacements: Niall O’Hanlom, Karol Donoghue, Ross Hendy, Niall Dunne, Patrick Julian, Oran Kelleher, Ciáran English.
CLONDALKIN: Kevin Dunphy, Josh Domican, Darren ‘Dardar’ Madden; James Kenny, Tom McGrath; Thomas Duffy, Cillian Walsh Phillips, Eoin Delaney; Eoin Brady; Pulusiatina Toeoanna; Karl Jacob; Darren ‘Redser’ Madden, Niall Nolan; Eoin Francis; Liam Redmond. Replacements: Brian Doyle, Jake Lusk, Cian McFadden, Ken McMahon, Owen Blake, Lemeki Vaipula, Simon King, Eoghan Farrell, Thomas Carter, Danny Steed, Mikey Russell, Stephen Bracken, Cathal Downey, Leigh Beresford, Ciaran McClean, Stephen Walsh.
