Clogher Valley continued in their quest for a second league title in three years with an emphatic, if stuttering, bonus point win at Coleraine. Joint coach Davy Black felt his side showed an improvement from last weekend when they played the same oppposition.

“I thought we played very well and there was much improvement on last week’s performance. Our scrum was totally dominant which give us a big lift. If I was to give one bit of criticism, I thought our discipline was pretty poor”.

And he is keen to press on in the coming weeks and wrap up the title.

“We’re just looking to keeping rolling with the fixtures and take that next step towards the league. If we beat Dromore this Saturday, we could effectively wrap up the league at Donaghadee on Wednesday night”.

Valley started with Cobain and Trenier in the pack as they continued to rotate players. The first five minutes of the game were disjointed, with Coleraine kicking directly to touch and then a series of scrum collapses resulted in a severe talking to both packs by the referee. When the game restarted Valley scored immediately with a planned move when winger Donaldson appeared in midfield and his attacking line sliced though the Coleraine defence. Though stopped five metres from the line, he off loaded to a supporting Dunlop who went in under the posts. Holme added the points and Valley led 7-0.

Valley continued to dominate taking scrums and line outs against the head consistently. However, they were casual in their approach play and were making unforced errors which relieved the pressure on Coleraine. They were also giving away penalties and from one of these Coleraine opened their account and narrowed the deficit to four points.

Then from a Coleraine lineout in their own 22, Valley stole the ball again and drove into midfield where Coleraine give away a penalty in front of the posts. Valley declined the penalty and from the scrum drove Coleraine back over the line for a pushover try by Wilson again converted by Holme. It was a measure of Valley’s control of the game and the confidence in their ability to score that they chose the scrum.

Just before half time Valley were reduced to 14 men when a flanker was yellow carded.

As the second half started Coleraine began to take the game to Valley and only good defence on the five metre line stopped them scoring. However as the first flanker returned from the sin bin they lost the other flanker to a further yellow card. Coleraine continued to attack but could make little headway against an aggressive Valley defence led by Trenier, McKenna and Bennett.

Eventually Valley turned the Coleraine ball over and a flowing move involving man of the match Best, Sharkey, Dunlop and then Todd took play into the Coleraine half. Coleraine were penalised and Valley kicked to touch. Having won the lineout Valley switched play left, right and back left where full back Armstrong had joined the line. With an expert grubber kick behind the defence he left winger Todd with a simple touch down and Valley led 19-3.

Valley then completely demolished the Coleraine scrum driving it back metres on either sides put in. With their backs continuing to move the ball well there was no way back for Coleraine. Another Valley penalty deep in Coleraine 22 brought another pushover try for Wilson and a Valley lead of 24-3 with 15 minutes left.

Despite losing another player to a yellow card when he retaliated after being stamped on in an off the ball incident, Valley continued to take the game to Coleraine. From a scrum near halfway Sharkey broke the gain line and the supporting Best released Donaldson who beat two defenders easily to score in the corner. This was the final score and Valley had completed a 29-3 rout achieved with 14 players for one third of the game.

Valley played well within their abilities and some players took their chance to give the selectors a headache for this week’s game against a resurgent Dromore at the Cran. This will be the first massive test for Valley as they will have the final three league games to play in eight days, with tricky away games to Donaghadee and Cooke the last two fixtures of the league campaign.