Sweet victory in local derby

Letterkenny's Senior side took the field on a dark wet and stormy day against close rivals Strabane RFC, with only a little hope of turning over the defeat from the first match of the year in September. With injuries and defections depleting the Letterkenny ranks, the backs were well and truly against the wall. Strabane have been strong and well organised for the last few seasons and always pull out all the stops to gain the upper hand over Letterkenny. Like any good boxing movie the scene was set for an heroic display from the underdogs to take on the prize fighters. Early forward dominance did not quite bear fruit as Letterkenny gave away a few penalties and Strabane put the ball through the hands to score in the corner through their right wing. Letterkenny were on the ropes but immediately hit back with series of driving mauls with the score coming from the impressive Christopher Digimouse. On 27 minutes Strabane with the wind at their back scored again to leave the core at 10 - 5 to the visitors at half time - everything to play for. The second half started with some great Letterkenny driving play and also ferocious defence from Chris Green and David Ward. The scrum was dominant and started to exert pressure that Strabane could not deal with. Penalty after penalty came and Daragh O’Connell took the points to make it 8 - 10 to Letterkenny. More power play from Letterkenny moved play into the Strabane half with during runs from the hard working no8 David Brown hitting the line with powerful carries. Eventually the referee had no option as the Strabane men pulled down a driving maul and awarded a penalty try to finally give Letterkenny a deserved lead. The Strabane men did not lie down and came back at Letterkenny hard with wave after wave of attack, but the organised and committed defence held firm. Letterkenny scored another penalty goal in the 78th minute to put the game out of reach and controlled the final minutes to take a very sweet victory. Every Letterkenny player from the hard tackling centres James Sweeney and Chris Petersen, to the super back row of Green, Clarke and Brown tackled like demons against a determined and direct Strabane team. Impact subs and brothers Kevin and James Lee McLaughlin also made a big difference when called upon towards the end of the game. It was not pretty, but it was a fantastic performance as this team showed true character and got a served result with players who genuinely want to play for Letterkenny RFC.
team - David Ward, Shaun McGill, Chris Digimas, Michael Foy, Ciaran Clarke, Kevin Callaghan, Chris Green, David Brown, Liam Fogarty, Darragh O’Connell, Martin Molloy, James Sweeney, Chris Petersen, Seanie Henry, Darragh Turley subs Kevin McLaughlin, James Lee McLaughlin.