Garryowen turn on the style to beat Lansdowne
Garryowen recorded an impressive 37-11 win over Lansdowne on Saturday but one of the downsides was a knee injury picked up by Mark Melbourne
GARRYOWEN turned in one of their most impressive displays of the season so far to record a bonus-point 37-11 win over Lansdowne in Dooradoyle on Saturday.
Coming a week after their narrow loss away to leaders St Mary’s, Garryowen really turned on the style here. They had two tries in the bag by half time but at that stage the game was still in the balance. By the end, they had three more and their biggest win of the season.
With Declan Cusack in top form at inside centre and Kieran O’Gorman and Paul Neville leading the way up front where Mike Sherry also impressed, it was a good day for Garryowen.
But there was a considerable downside: captain Mark Melbourne was forced off at half time with a knee injury and while he loss wasn’t felt on this occasion, it could be in the coming weeks.
In an entertaining first half, Garryowen were quick out of the blocks and almost got the game off to the perfect start when a clever cross-field kick from Fergal Lawlor was just too far ahead of Ian Hanly and he knocked on.
Lansdowne cleared their lines temporarily but Garryowen came again and Melbourne crashed over from their next attack. Cusack added the conversion.
Two Andrew Geraghty penalties either side of one from Cusack kept Lansdowne in touch and they took the lead when the prolific Matt Healy crossed in the 25th minute.
Geraghty missed the difficult conversion and Garryowen regained the lead eight minutes later when Ronan O’Mahony took a beautiful line off Cusack and dotted down under the posts. Cusack’s conversion made it 17-11 at the break.
Garryowen were sluggish enough on the re-start but they got their third try midway through the half when Paul Neville picked from the base of a five-metre scrum and put rookie scrum-half Neil Cronin over for his first senior try. Again Cusack nailed the conversion.
As the game ticked towards injury time, Declan Cusack danced over for the try his performance deserved and Lorcan Bourke then rounded off the day with their fifth try a couple of minutes later.
They play Young Munster next week. On the back of this result, they’ll have a renewed pep in their step.
SCORERS - Garryowen: Declan Cusack try, four conversions and penalty; Ronan O’Mahony, Niall Cronin, Mark Melbourne and Lorcan Bourke try each; Lansdowne: Andrew Geraghty two penalties, Matt Healy try
GARRYOWEN - Lorcan Bourke; Ronan O’Mahony, Corey Hircock, Declan Cusack, Ian Hanly; Fergal Lawlor, Niall Cronin; JP Cooney, Mike Sherry, Peter O’Shea; David Sherry, Mark Melbourne; Paul Neville, Kieran O’Gorman, Lemaki Viapulu. Replacements: David Rowley, Declan Lavery, Frank McKenna, Shane Buckley, Alan Gaughan
LANSDOWNE - Ross McCarron; Cian Aherne, Sean Carey, Mark Roche, Matt Healy; Andrew Geraghty, Conor Crowley; Ian Prenderville, Tom Sexton, Darren O’Reilly; Mark Feeley, Willie Earl; Jordi Murphy, Jason Kelly, Ron Boucher
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Friday 25 May 2012
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