Record Defeat for Midleton R.F.C. in Belfast

 

A.I.L. Div. 3

 

Instonians   78  v  Midleton 3

 

The line from Van Morrisson’s song “ My Mother told me that there would be days like this “ must have been very much in the minds of the Midleton Team as they made the long journey home from Belfast last Saturday night.  Fortunately it is hard to recall any previous occasion that Midleton conceded twelve tries and nine conversions in the one fixture.

 

A long injury list plus the unavailability of players through work commitments meant Midleton fielded an understrength team to start the game .  The loss through injury of Donovan Gee and Duncan Walker within the first twenty minutes exacerbated their problems. Philip Morris came on for Walker and Brierley , normally a prop forward replaced Gee in the second row.

 

A drop goal from Jason Holland took the bare look off the score sheet which left Instonians leading 33pts to 3pts at half – time.

 

Midleton fought gallantly, none more so than Roy McArdle and Damian Smyth, but eventually the much bigger Instonians side took over completely and ran riot on the score sheet.  Owen O’Shea replaced James Colbert during the second half and injuries to Eddie Tobin and Mark O’Flynn meant  Garoid Collins and Mick Cullinane were called into action.

 

For Midleton it was a day that whatever could go wrong went wrong.  Hopefully their injury list will have shortened over the Christmas break and they have a friendly fixture against Dolphin early in the New Year to prepare for the resumption of the League, at home against Connemara on the 12th Jan

 

The result may have been record breaking but it is still only the loss of four points.

The Club Race Night is being held in the Clubhouse on Saturday 22nd Dec. This function together with the Christmas spirit should help to lift the Club from any thoughts of doom and gloom.

Midleton R.F.C. Team for Fixture v  Instonians

 

1 Mark O’Flynn

2 James Colbert

3 Roy McArdle  ( Capt)

4 Dan O’Connor

5 Peter O’Donoghue

6 Donovan Gee

7 Duncan Walker

8 Mark O’Connell

9 Rob Smyth

10 Jason Holland

11 Robert Colan-O’Leary

12 Damian Smyth

13 Eddie Tobin

14 Mike Hickey

15 Jeff Hitchmough

16 Owen O’Shea

17 Kevin Brierley

18 Philip Morris

19 Gearoid Collins

20 Mick Cullinane

 

 

 

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