Clogher Valley 1st XV 16 CIYMS 1st XV 32

Clogher Valley remain bottom of the Ulster Rugby Championship Division One table following defeat to CIYMS on Saturday.
However, Clogher coach Davy Black felt that the end scoreline was maybe harsh on his side as he accepted that the visitors punished their mistakes on the day.
“I thought that the final score probably didn’t reflect the game, I thought it was closer than that. However, when we made mistakes and errors they were able to punish us just like any good side would do.
“I’ve said it a few times, but a lot of it comes down to our game management. We needed to be looking after the ball better but we didn’t do that. Overall though I couldn’t fault the effort of the boys” he added.
Clogher were not helped by the fact that they were forced into a reshuffle before the game after losing Toby McAlpine and Alex McKeown to illness and at the break they found themselves trailing 18-6 to a CI team that currently flying high in third spot in the table.
The away side registered two tries in the first half with Craig Devlin and Jason Gililand touching down while Matt Kilgore also kicked two penalties.
Clogher’s scores in the first half came via two Neil Trotter penalties.
A third Trotter penalty in the second half kept Clogher in contention while they also were awarded a penalty try after a period of pressure from the home team.
However, with Devlin and Nathan Burns grabbing further tries for CI, the away side were to run out 16 point winners in the end.
Black though feels that his side have improved since the previous meeting between the teams this season.
“If you look at that game at the start of the November, there has been a big improvement in our performance so we are moving in the right direction,” he commented.
However, it is all about putting points on the board from now to the end of the season with an away game against Cooke coming up on Saturday.
“We’ll still be missing a few players but we’ll be going with a team that will hopefully take something out of the game for us.
“Every game is a cup final between now and the end of the season and you have to try and win them all,” he said.