Cooke 1st XV 12 Clogher Valley 1st XV 26

Clogher Valley stayed on the heels of Championship Division One leaders Instonians following Saturday’s hard-fought 26-12 win away to an in-form Cooke side.

Instonians currently sit 11 points clear at the top of the table, but second-placed Clogher have two games in hand and know that they must keep winning if they are to keep the pressure on.

The sun shone through for the beginning of Saturday’s game, but the pitch was heavy from the rain and snow over the past week.

It wasn’t the conditions for a fast-flowing match, and it was 18 minutes before the opening score.

With a Valley ruck 15 metres out, as scrum half Matthew Bothwell went to pass, he spotted that the Cooke defence were anticipating the move and left the narrowest of gaps.

This was all the young scrum half needed and he darted in to score under the posts. Paul Armstrong added the conversion.

Cooke came back with a vengeance and dominated the game for the next 10 minutes.

In wave after wave, the Cooke forwards threw all they could at the Valley, who eventually ran out of defenders and the home side crossed the line to score their opening try.

The conversion was good and both teams were level.

Five minutes before the interval, Callum Smyton broke from a scrum 40 metres out, making 20 metres before he off loaded to a flying Adam Brown, who went past several Cooke defenders to score beside the posts.

Armstrong added the conversion to send the visitors in with a 14-7 lead at half time.

With the slight downward slope and the wind at their backs, the travelling Valley supporters were expecting the next 40 minutes to be an easy pushover.

In the previous encounter Clogher easily took the Cooke side apart in the second half, scoring 45 points.

However, nobody had told Cooke this was to happen, and 10 minutes into the second half, a Cooke scrum and several rucks later gave the Cooke right winger enough space to cross the line in the corner.

Unsuccessful

The conversion was unsuccessful, and the visitors still held a narrow lead 14-12.

For large periods of the second half, Cooke had possession, but never really penetrated the Valley defence.

At the 65-minute point, a Valley scrum five metres out was won by the visitors; Callum Smyton picked up and drove for the line, and despite two Cooke defenders hanging on to him, he crossed the line to score Valley’s third try.

At 19-12 points up, there was a little daylight between the two teams. With the game coming to a close, the Valley were awarded a scrum 15 metres out in the centre of the pitch.

Smyton broke from the base of the scrum and made 10 metres; up popped David Maxwell to take the ball from his number 8 and cross the line to give the Valley the fourth crucial try. Paul Armstrong added the conversion to give the Valley a 26-12 win over Cooke.

With a bonus try point, the Valley have added another five points to their league tally, still a bit behind the leaders, Instonians.

Cooke made the Valley fight for the win and it was a tough test.

The strength of this Valley side is that they can attack from anywhere on the pitch; their defence is solid, and their fitness is such that as the opposition tire towards the latter part of the match, these young players exploit any weaknesses.

Next week, Clogher 1st XV are away to Dromore, with the 2nd xv at home to Bangor 2nds XV.