Letterkenny secured a welcome bonus point win against Civil Service on Saturday with an improved all round display. The Civil Service front row were under pressure from the first scrum and Ryan Mortimer was just short with an early penalty attempt from a scrum infringement near the halfway line. Following the 22 drop out the Letterkenny backs and forwards attacked with purpose with Conor Dunleavy, Rae Clarke and Gareth McGill prominent with ball in hand and the resultant pressure brought a try for winger Stephen Devine which was converted by Mortimer.

The early momentum was continued with some great interplay between the backs and forwards resulting in a scrum near the Civil Service line. From the scrum the Letterkenny backs attacked the blind-side and winger John Anthony McFadden crashed over for another try converted well by Mortimer.

The Letterkenny backs were eager to run from the re-start and brought play inside their opponents half where a breakdown penalty was converted by Mortimer. Another off-side penalty followed shortly after which was duly converted by Mortimer to rack up a 20 point lead in almost as many minutes.

With the set piece in ascendancy for the home side it was unfortunate that a Letterkenny scrum on half way led to the visitors opening their account for the afternoon. The ball was loose at the base of the scrum and fly-hacked through to the Letterkenny 22 by the Civil Service scrum half and then play was switched the width of the field for a try wide out which was converted to leave the half time score 20-7.

2nd row Ben Mortimer fielded the restart for the second half and impressively galloped all the way to within 5m of the try line before play was halted due to a collision between two Civil Service players. Play resumed with a Letterkenny scrum under the posts 5m out and after a few attempts at pushing their opponents over the line a try was awarded and converted by Ryan Mortimer.

Letterkenny continued to play in the Civil Service half of the pitch but needless breakdown infringements and turnovers meant that the possession and territory was not being translated into points on the scoreboard. From one turnover the Civil Service backs kicked downfield behind the Letterkenny back 3 and the kick wasn’t dealt with effectively setting up a good field position for the visitors. A period of pressure inside the Letterkenny 22 followed and the home side paid the price for not defending a short range tap penalty with any cohesion and conceded an unconverted try on the wing.

Letterkenny then finished the last 20 minutes of the game strongly with a Mortimer penalty shortly after the restart, and then after setting up camp in the Civil Service 22 Dunleavy barged over from close range to secure the bonus point try which Mortimer converted to leave the final score 37-12.
Letterkenny travel to Lurgan this Saturday in what should be an interesting encounter as the two sides have had very similar results in Q3 to date this season.
Training continues on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 7-8.30pm. All are welcome.

Letterkenny Team: Rae Clarke, Shaun McGill, Christopher Digimas, Ben Mortimer, Conor Dunleavy, Donnachadh MacNaillis, Gary Canning, Gareth McGill, Eoin O’Riain (Capt), Ryan Mortimer, John Anthony McFadden, Ladi Yuno, Sean Deerey, Stephen Devine, Evin Walsh