Rugby- O’Connor try gives Kilkenny local derby success over Carlow

Kilkenny continued their recent run of good form when they overcame neighbours Carlow in the Provincial Towns Cup on Sunday afternoon.

After defeating Edenderry earlier on in the competition and sealing league safety when beating Wicklow last week, the Foulkstown based side came into the game with a lot of confidence and a David O’Connor try helped them see off their opponents.

The Kilkenny try came in the opening minutes of the second half. In this case Carlow had won back the ball in their 22 only to lose it again and allow Kilkenny number 8 David O’ Connor in for a well worked try.

In terms of territory and possession the Oakpark visitors held the upper hand but failed to convert this into scores.

Each defence was only breached once. After conceding two penalty scores in the 10th and 18th minutes Carlow came back in the 26th minute with their own well worked try.

Kilkenny missed touch with a penalty. Carlow ran the ball back and forced Kilkenny to concede a lineout on their 30 metre line.

From this Owen and Rhys Edgehill made hard metres followed by David McDermott and Sam Cullen who gave a scoring pass to Dan Crotty.

The conversion could have put Carlow into a 7 – 6 lead rather than the 5 – 6 deficit which held till half -time.

Carlow lost this game by letting concentration slip in the early moments of the second half. The converted try put the home side into a 13 – 5 lead and Carlow had a bigger challenge.

14 minutes into the half Richard Whyte’s second penalty attempt hit the post for the second time. (The first was in the 22nd minute of the first half.)

During this period Carlow were winning most of the battles but Kilkenny’s lineout maul got them out of trouble on several occasions.

After one maul there was a flare up and Carlow’s Murphy and Kilkenny’s Hugh Corkery were yellow carded.

With about four minutes left and the deficit still on eight points Richard Whyte tapped over a simple penalty to reduce the gap to five points.

This was now a one score game and the visitors had momentum. A cross field kick was brilliantly gathered by Wes Shirley on the right.

Then the ball was kicked to the left but the ball hopped towards the Kilkenny defender rather that the Carlow chaser as the home side held out to claim a big win.

Kilkenny will now move onto the semi-finals where they will meet Dundalk in Naas on Sunday afternoon.

The other last four clash will see Mullingar and Ashbourne collide with a a place in the final on Sunday April 17 at stake.

Kilkenny -Liam Caddy, Hugh Corkery, Podge Mahon, Joe Manuel, Jack Walsh, Jake McDonald, Jake Partly, Conor Dempsey, Ben Devlin, Drew Phelan, Liam Phelan, Wes Carter, Shane O Riordan, Roy Stanley, David O Connor.

Subs: Shane O Connor, Andrew Warner, Simon O Hara, Lyndon Brannign, Aiden McDonald.

Carlow- Richard Whyte, Caomhan Brennan, David McDermott, Dan Crotty, Sam Cullen, Alan Owens, Jeff McDermott, Owen Edgehill, Conal Slater, Cian Clarke, John Lyons, Wes Shirley, Capt,Rhys Edgehill, Johnny Murphy, Conor Treacy.

Subs: John Farrell, Conor Moore, Steve Treacy, Isaac Daly. Calum Murphy.