Longford Rugby Club fall at the first hurdle in crashing out of the Towns Cup

Longford RFC . . . 10    Tullamore RFC . . . 18

The home side were the first to register a score through Ryan McHugh converted a penalty  in the fourth minute after a Tullamore infringement: Longford 3 Tullamore 0

The next few minutes saw an exchange of kicks keeping play between the 22s. Longford thought they had a breakthrough with a good carry from Henry Bryce, only for his run to be halted and Tullamore awarded a penalty to bring play close to the Longford line. 

Under pressure, Longford pulled together and defended well, forcing a knock on from Tullamore giving the home side a chance to clear their lines. The game was littered with handling errors and perhaps did not have the characteristic bite of a first round cup tie.

And it was from one of the knock on scrums that the visitors made their mark on the scoreboard, running in the first try of the game with 25 minutes played. The try, unconverted, left the score 3 to 5 and that’s how it remained until the half-time whistle.

 Longford were immediately under pressure from the second half kick-off. Tullamore made the most of the ensuing penalty and broke through the home defence with only 4 minutes gone in  the second half: Longford 3 Tullamore 10.

Longford made some good carries but the sharpness of their passing was not up to its usual standard.

With 15 minutes gone in the second half, the home side were reduced to 14 for a collection of penalties. The visitors chose to kick for the posts: Longford 3 Tullamore 13.

Longford tried with some gusto to get some go forward ball but were unable to breach the Tullamore defence. Tullamore were quick to the rucks and were awarded a penalty after Longford held on to the ball too long. 

The quick tap and go saw the visitors make a great break to near halfway and cause Longford to scramble a defence and after holding onto the ball the home side were awarded a penalty and could reorganise themselves. The penalty kick brought the play back to the Tullamore line. The home side could not make the most of the lineout and with the ball knocked on Tullamore cleared the lines again.

But there was still a fight in the home side. From a Tullamore knock on the ball reached Colm Glynn. A good pass from Glynn saw Ryan McHugh make some yards and move the ball wide to the supporting Diarmuid Masterson who, with a little work left to do, managed to touch down in the corner -in the 25th minute. The near touchline conversion was made by Ryan McHugh: Longford 10 Tullamore 13.

This seemed to put some fire in the home side but were left frustrated again when their hard work was undone by another knock-on.

Longford pushed on again with good carries from Daniel McHugh, Tom Gilheany and Liam Brady but again Longford were deemed to hold on too long and the visitors cleared the lines again from the penalty kick.

Their line-out was well taken and a kick through from the back of their ruck wasn’t dealt with and the visitors ran in for what was to be the last score of the game. 

Longford will come away from the game frustrated that they could not convert some of the possession they had into scores but they will have to learn from Sunday’s game and move on to preparing for the next round of the Leinster League this weekend when they welcome Tullow to CPL Park on Sunday.  

Leinster League Division 1B Fixture

Sunday February 19  

CPL Park: Longford v Tullow, 3pm