Judges Road men finish magnificent season in style

City of Derry............ 26

CITY of Derry capped a fantastic season at Chambers Park on Saturday. Bevan Lynch's men created history by defeating Portadown by four points in a playoff to return to All Ireland League Rugby. City of Derry were relegated from senior rugby two years ago. In the same season Portadown themselves returned to the senior ranks after an absence of just one year. A richly deserved reward for Head Coach Bevan Lynch and his players who have been beaten only four times in the last two seasons.

The Judges Road outfit’s few defeats came once in the Ulster Qualifying League and three times in All Ireland Round Robin fixtures.

The final score does not really tell the story of the game. With seventy minutes gone on the clock City of Derry led by 26-8. The home supporters were making their way to the exits having given up on their team. All of a sudden within five minutes there were just four points between the teams with Derry hanging on as time ebbed away. The final minutes of the game saw the Derry supporters on tenterhooks as they thought what would have been a deserved victory and their team’s destiny was going to be snatched from their grasp. The referee blew the final whistle with Derry in possession. They won a penalty in their own half and Andrew Semple dispatched the ball towards the Derry supporters for celebration time to begin.

This has been a long hard slog of a season for the City of Derry coaches and players. They had to play fifteen games since the end of January.

Their only loss came against Seapoint of Dublin in the first All Ireland Round Robin fixture. Derry played ten League games in that busy period and had to win every game and score four tries to put themselves in a position to have a playoff against Armagh. The winner would determine the Ulster Qualifying League champions.

In the same period Portadown played only five All Ireland League fixtures, winning two. In fact Portadown have only won four league fixtures all season. The winning mentality proved the difference between the two teams on Saturday. City of Derry expected to win the game while Portadown hoped they would win. That became more evident as the game went on, especially when Portadown went into an 8-6 lead just after half time.

City of Derry played all the rugby in the early stages of the game helped by the breeze and were six points up after twenty eight minutes courtesy of two penalties from Richard McCarter. Despite Derry’s dominance Portadown could have been ahead early on. They intercepted on two occasions with Derry on the attack inside the Portadown 22 metre line but good tracking back by the Derry backs prevent try's. Portadown eventually got into the Derry 22 and good work by Philip Jackson and Chris Banks saw captain Diarmiad O’Kane almost get touchdown but was snared by David Witherow. From the resulting ruck hooker Steven Morton got in for an unconverted that left Drry leading by 6-5 at the break.

Colin Lawson dropped a goal immediately after the restart to give Portadown a two point lead. Derry were finding it difficult to break down the Portadown midfield defence. David Founston almost broke through eventually and then Richard McCarter put an exquisite kick in behind the Portadown defence and only an unlucky bounce stopped him scoring. The alarm bells were sounding for Portadown as McCarter moved his level of influence on the game up several notches. He was the catalyst for Andrew Semple to produce as well and as the Derry back row of Stephen Corr, Stephen Simms and Karl Gimmell raised their play to another level the game was about to turn in Derry favour.

There were fifty two minutes gone and it was all Derry when Simon Logue got in for an unconverted try in the corner to put Derry back in the lead. Three minutes later Mc Carter showed vision to find a gap in the Portadown defence and got in for an unconverted try to make the scoreline 16pts to 8pts lead for Derry. Sam McAuley, Sam Duffy and Philip Brady were carrying ball to keep Portadown going backwards. Mark O’Connor replaced Peter Henderson and kicked a penalty for Derry.

Then ten minutes from the end of the game McCarter again chipped the Portadown defence, caught the ball above his head and touched down for a try which O’Connor converted to give Derry a 26-8 lead and what looked like an unassailable lead.

With seventy two minutes gone Dave Whitten produced a try out of nothing and Craig Woods converted to reduce the arrears. Three minutes later a quick tap and go for Portadown saw a break from Sonny Gaye and some good interplay from the other backs which allowed Gaye to score and when Woods converted there were only four points between the teams and the game was back on. Derry survived the late surge from Portadown and when Derry turned over Portadown ball and won a penalty Andrew Semple kicked for touch to complete a two year journey for Derry back into All Ireland Senior Rugby.

City of Derry: Peter Henderson, Josh Lewis, Jared Bennett, David Founston, Simon Logue, Richard McCarter, Andrew Semple, David Witherow, Sam McAauley, , Sam Duffy, David Houston , Philip Brady, Karl Gemmell, Stephen Simms, Stephen Corr. Replacements: Jason Mitchell, Chris Shields, Christopher Cooper, Mark O’Connor, Rudi Moore.