Valley fail in bid to make second final

Editorial Department • Published 22 Apr 2010 10:24 0 Comments

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Limavady 1st XV 27; Clogher Valley 1st XV 10;

Clogher Valley's bid to make a second cup final this season ended in disappointment when they went down to Limavady by 27-10 as their season rather fizzles out after the recent high of making the Towns' Cup final followed by the low of that agonising one point defeat.

This cup semi-final also doubled up as a league encounter and Valley will end their campaigh this Saturday away to Cooke and will be hoping to end an inconsistent season with a win.

Following on from last week's defeat to Coleraine, the Valley found that their opposition were much more committed and physical, and apart from two ten minute periods either side of half time,

Valley could not get into the game as Limavady's young half back partnership of Hunter and Semple dictated proceedings. On a perfect surface, Semple opened the scoring with an excellent drop goal in the second minute after which his kicking from hand kept Valley on the retreat. With the Valley lineout in disarray, Limavady were able to attack at will. From a lineout steal Limavady swept the ball right and poor tackling allowed full back Wilson to cross for the game's opening try. Semple missed the conversion but nailed another soaring drop goal shortly after for an 11 - 0 lead. At this stage, the Valley couldn't get their hands on the ball and a further penalty stretched the lead to 14 - 0 after 25 minutes.

This penalty seemed to sting the Valley into action and at last started to put a few phases together and from a lineout in the home 22, the forwards sucked in the fringe defenders and the ball was moved wide for Ally Breen to score in the right hand corner .Aaron Best landed the difficult conversion to narrow the gap to 14 - 7 with Clogher Valley now back in the game. However, Semple had the final say in the first half with his third drop goal on the stroke of half time to make it 14-7 at the break.

A Best penalty on the restart gave Valley fresh hope at 14 - 10, but this was short-lived as Limavady proceeded to dominate for the rest of the game. Semple broke through some weak tackling on his own 22 and sent the replacement winger scampering down the left touchline. The impressive out-half was on hand to take the return pass and score to the left of the posts. His successful conversion and a further penalty brought his personal tally to 22 points in Limavady's 27 - 10 victory.

This article appeared in Impartial Reporter 22 Apr 10

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