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Corinthians 32 – City of Derry 7
Corinthians continued their strong start to the season with a convincing 32-7 win over City of Derry at Corinthian Park on Saturday.
Playing in a persistent heavy drizzle, the Cloonacauneen side achieved a bonus point win which moves them to third place in Division 2A of the AIL.
Derry started well despite playing into the strong wind and an early penalty opportunity was missed by outhalf Richard Peoples.
However, Corinthians countered immediately and from a scrum on half way Aaron Conneely made a break, showing tremendous speed, to bring play inside the Derry 22. An infringement at the breakdown gave Corinthians a penalty which No 10 Conor Murphy converted to make the score 3-0 after five minutes.
From the restart Corinthians took up residence in the Derry half, using the wind to help keep the opposition defending inside their 22.
A mistake at a 22 drop out gave Corinthians an attacking scrum from which scrum half Mickey Murphy made a break, feeding his backline who moved the ball smartly to winger Darin Claasen who scored on the right.
Murphy converted to leave the score 8-0 after 13 minutes.
The home side continued to pressure Derry and good handling by backs and forwards kept the ball in play despite the conditions.
After 20 minutes, quick ball from a line out on the Derry 10 metre line was fed to Conor Murphy who broke beautifully and found the supporting Bryan Dixon with a neat inside pass for the young centre to score beside the posts. Murphy’s conversion made the score 15-0.
Corinthians continued to dominate possession and position and the moment of the match came on 35 minutes when Conor Murphy caught the Derry defence asleep when he opted to kick a penalty cross field to the right corner. Claasen still had a lot of work to do as he gathered the ball with a diving catch and his momentum carried him over the line for an excellent score which Murphy converted.
Bryan Dixon crossed the line again a minute from time after good work from the backs and forwards penetrated the Derry defence.
Murphy converted and despite a couple of minutes of pressure from the visitors including a five metre line out on the Corinthians line, the score remained 29-0 at half time.
The second half was largely forgettable as Corinthians appeared to drop the intensity of their game and become over-elaborate in their play. This allowed Derry to build some momentum which eventually yielded a try to full back Peter Henderson, converted by Richard McCarter after 15 minutes.
This prompted Corinthians to up their game and the contest was fairly even thereafter with neither side threatening to score. Play became very broken with the conditions causing quite a few handling errors by both sides.
The match ended with a final penalty from Conor Murphy three minutes into added time, to leave the final score 32-7.
Next weekend Corinthians travel to Dalkey to play Seapoint aiming to build on the good start to the season.
Corinthians: Rob Kennedy Darin Claasen, Finn Gormley (C), Bryan Dixon, Wayne Williams, Conor Murphy, Mickey Murphy, Finlay Bealham, Joey Merrigan, Dave Small, Gary Warde, Pat Cunningham, Aaron Conneely Sean Gerrity, Aurelien Casanova. Replacements: (all used) Kevin O’Byrne, Tom Toolan, Luke Berini, Kieran Marmion, Eric Flynn.
City of Derry: P Henderson, J Lewis, D Funston, A Bratton, S Logue, R Peoples, A Semple, C Shields, S McAuley (C) S Duffy, D Houston, B McKillop, R Baird, C McDonald, S Corr.
