Letterkenny travelled to compete in the George Tees Cup, a 15 a-side warm up competition for intermediate clubs, and were drawn in a pool alongside Limavady, City of Derry, Creggs and Ballymoney.

Letterkenny 12 Limavady 7
Limavady started the brighter of the two sides but once Letterkenny settled into the match after some strong forward carries Ryan Mortimer opened the scoring. After some good work by John Anthony McFadden and Ladi Yuno created the space for the looping Mortimer who crossed near the corner. Playing into the wind in the second half a poor clearance kick by Letterkenny led to a series of rucks near the try line and a Limavady prop barrelled over for a try from close range. This seemed to shake Letterkenny up and they seemed re-vitalised from the kick off. Following a strong run from Yuno up the right wing supported well by Shaun McGill and Gareth McGill play was taken inside the Limavady 22. The pressure was applied by great running lines from Gary Canning , Gareth McGill and McFadden before play was switched to the blind side where Micheal Moran finished with a well taken try.

Letterkenny 7 City of Derry 10
Letterkenny started brightly running out of defence and identified an early opportunity to switch play to the blind side with an overlap but unfortunately handling let them down and gifted the City of Derry centre an intercept which he duly converted under the posts. Never short of endeavour, Letterkenny came back strongly and were making inroads with some good ball carries by Chris Digimas, Craig Heron and David McClean in particular. Unfortunately too often the support was too slow to arrive and possession turned over. With the wind at their backs in the second half Letterkenny were soon applying pressure to the Derry line. From a quick tap penalty taken by Kevin McLaughlin Ray Gallagher was sent crashing over in the corner. An excellent conversion from near the touchline by Mortimer tied the scores. With time running out Derry threw everything at Letterkenny and just inside the Letterkenny 22 a turnover was adjudged be illegal and with the last action of the game City of Derry kicked the penalty in front of the posts.

Letterkenny 14 Creggs 20
With a dominant scrum against all opposition in the tournament Letterkenny were able to launch Moran for a storming run through the centre. From the resultant series of rucks Chris Digimas pounced to score and open his account for the season. Creggs responded with a fine try exposing some weaknesses in the wide defence of Letterkenny. Again using the scrum as the launch platform, Eoghan O’Riain made a fantastic break on the blindside making it to within 10m of the line. The ball was quickly recycled several times before being put out the back line to the left where Eoin Friel did well to beat a few defenders in the corner and dot down under the posts. Creggs responded again and pressurised the Leterkenny line until they found a weakness to cross for another try. The game finished with another try for Creggs when they switched play several times to find gaps in the tiring Letterkenny defence.

Letterkenny 21 Ballymoney 17
Playing into the wind in the first half this was the most impressive spell for the Letterkenny team through the day. Initially defending inside their own half they pressurised Ballymoney back into their own half and into conceding possession. Strong runs by McFadden, Yuno and the impressive Canning were causing problems for Ballymoney and from a series of these runs Gareth McGill stretched to reach the line with a well taken try on a good supporting line. From the restart Letterkenny attacked wide and Yuno released McFadden and from 70m McFadden displayed a great piece of evasive and powerful running to touch down between the posts. Ballymoney struggled to get into the game and from a midfield ruck the ever alert O’Riain kicked into space on the blindside. Following up his own kick he managed to tackle and strip the ball from the receiver and the turnover ball was taken forward at pace by Heron and Shaun McGill before Gareth McGill crashed over. All 3 first half tries were converted by Friel. In the second half Letterkenny seemed to relax and let Ballymoney back into the game and conceded 3 fairly soft tries of which thankfully only one was converted.
The competition was an enjoyable and worthwhile exercise with the club fielding a mix of 1st and 2nd team players. Letterkenny 2nds commence their league campaign with an away fixture to Clogher Valley on Saturday, the 1sts get underway with an away fixture on 12th September in the Qualifier 3 league away to Belfast High School RFC.

New and returning players are most welcome to attend training on Tuesdays at the Club and Thursdays at Adam Speers Gym in New Mills, both commence at 6.30pm.