Houston inspires Derry to success

City of Derry...26

Monivea...11

CITY of Derry made history on Saturday when they defeated Monivea in their All Ireland AIB Junior Cup semi-final to qualify for the club’s first All Ireland Final at any level.

The final, against old rivals Armagh, will be played in Athlone on Saturday, January 30, (KO 1pm).

There was a doubt about this fixture at Judges Road all week with the inclement weather but sterling work by club members on Thursday night ensured that the game could go ahead as planned. Monivea played with a slight breeze in the first half and looked well up for this tie from the start.

There were just four minutes on the clock when Derry were penalised for hands in the ruck and Gerr O’Connor gave the Galway men the lead with a simple penalty. Monivea were carrying ball deep into the Derry 22 metre line but tremendous defense from Sam McAuley who was tackling everything that moved and he kept the Derry line intact with great help from David Witherow, Chris Shields and captain Bob McKillop.

Derry forwards were caught off-side at ruck on twenty five minutes and Gerr O’Connor again increased Monivea’s lead to six points with a penalty from in front of the posts.

The Judges Road men got themselves right back into the game on thirty minutes, the athletic David Houston, who won the match of the match accolade, won quality line out ball Ryan Campbell carried ball forward and three quick phases of play later scrum half Andrew Semple found his cousin David Houston who made the decisive break. Richard McCarter at out half picked out full back Peter Henderson gliding into the line at pace to score by the posts, Mark O’Connor added the conversion to give Derry a 7 points to 6 points lead.

Derry were taking the game by the scruff of the next as half time approached. Monivea kicked a speculative ball into the Derry 22 metre area and a miss kick to touch by one of the Derry backs allowed the Monivea wing forward Patrick Fitzmaurice to score an unconverted try with the last move of the half to give his team an 11 points to 7 points half time lead.

The home side started the second half with some intent and the advantage of the elements. Good forward play by Karl Gemmell and Mark Walker on five minutes gave Funston a chance to make inroads deep into the Monivea half. Josh Lewis was on hand to quickly feed Mark O’Connor to score an unconverted try in the corner.

Derry brought on Stephen Ferguson at tight head prop and he immediately made an impression with his solid scrimmaging. Derry won a go forward scrum on the opposition 22 meter line which allowed the Derry No 8 Stepehen Corr to pickup and gallop in for a try which Mark O’Connor converted to give his team an eight points lead.

Bevan Lynch’s men finished the game in some style when McCarter made a break down the right hand side of the field and after a few intricate passes with Gemmell, McCarter sealed an historic victory with a special try converted by Mark O’Connor to give his team a 15 point win.

Derry’s forward coach Mark Nicholl said after the game: “We were a bit rusty early on which was understandable considering we haven’t played for five weeks. There is only so much you can do when training indoors and there is no substitute for tackling contact like what you get in a game.

“We will come on as a team on the back of that performance and we can look forward to many crutial games to come for the rest of the season. What and exciting time for us all here at the Club. We now look forward to our Towns Cup game at home against Ballyclare on Saturday next and then we will prepare for hopefully what will be a great occasion in Athlone.”

City of Derry: Peter Henderson, Josh Lewis, David Funston, Ryan Campbell, Mark O’Connor, Richard McCarter, Andrew Semple, David Witherow, Sam McCauley, Chris Shields, David Houston, Bob McKillop (Capt), Karl Gemmell, Mark Walker, Stephen Corr. Replacements; Jason Mitchell, Stephen Ferguson, Stephen Simms, Rudi Moore, Steven Logue, Jarred Bennett.

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