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Sat 09 Sep 2023
1st XVCooke RFC 1st XV
10
17
Toon lose first Home game of the season
Claire Diamond23 Oct 2023 - 17:29
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On a roasting hot September afternoon, Championship 1 Rugby returned to the Kilraughts Road with Belfast side, Cooke, the visitors as JKC/Causeway Geotech sponsored Ballymoney 1XV opened their home league campaign following their opening day league defeat to City of Derry.
The home side were disappointed with the result from last week and started well in an extremely tight first half, in fact the game remained scoreless until the half hour mark when winger Owen Boyd was adjudged to be high with his thunderous tackle and the Cooke out half kicked the penalty.
Cooke doubled the lead shortly afterwards when another penalty gave the kicker a simple shot in front of the posts although just before halftime, out half Tom Curry opened the home side account when Cooke were penalised just outside the 22, half time score 6-3 to the visitors.
Five minutes into the second half a penalty conceded by Andrew Gilmour led to a yellow card for the centre and Cooke increased the lead to 9-3. Ballymoney’s discipline slipped and conceded a number of penalties as Cooke kicked another taking the score to 12-3. On twenty minutes, Cooke scored their try, winger finding a gap out wide left and raced through to score in the corner, 17-3.
Ballymoney kept battling and scored their try when Cooke collapsed a scrum on their own line giving the ref no option but to award the penalty try with 6 minutes remaining, taking score 17-10.
Ballymoney pushed hard for another try but the visitor’s defence stood firm to hold out for the victory although Ballymoney collected a losing bonus point.
After the game skipper Will Scott said “Very disappointed with the result today, we knew Cooke would be very strong, but we felt it was a game we should have won; the performance and commitment was there from everyone but we conceded far too many penalties which we certainly not afford to do. We had two yellow cards today again, and its difficult enough without playing 20 minutes with 14 men. The belief and ability is there without a doubt, we will continue to keep up the intensity at training as we travel to CIYMS next Saturday.”
The home side were disappointed with the result from last week and started well in an extremely tight first half, in fact the game remained scoreless until the half hour mark when winger Owen Boyd was adjudged to be high with his thunderous tackle and the Cooke out half kicked the penalty.
Cooke doubled the lead shortly afterwards when another penalty gave the kicker a simple shot in front of the posts although just before halftime, out half Tom Curry opened the home side account when Cooke were penalised just outside the 22, half time score 6-3 to the visitors.
Five minutes into the second half a penalty conceded by Andrew Gilmour led to a yellow card for the centre and Cooke increased the lead to 9-3. Ballymoney’s discipline slipped and conceded a number of penalties as Cooke kicked another taking the score to 12-3. On twenty minutes, Cooke scored their try, winger finding a gap out wide left and raced through to score in the corner, 17-3.
Ballymoney kept battling and scored their try when Cooke collapsed a scrum on their own line giving the ref no option but to award the penalty try with 6 minutes remaining, taking score 17-10.
Ballymoney pushed hard for another try but the visitor’s defence stood firm to hold out for the victory although Ballymoney collected a losing bonus point.
After the game skipper Will Scott said “Very disappointed with the result today, we knew Cooke would be very strong, but we felt it was a game we should have won; the performance and commitment was there from everyone but we conceded far too many penalties which we certainly not afford to do. We had two yellow cards today again, and its difficult enough without playing 20 minutes with 14 men. The belief and ability is there without a doubt, we will continue to keep up the intensity at training as we travel to CIYMS next Saturday.”
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