Defeat to Mullingar leaves Dundalk in relegation battle
Leinster League 1A Dundalk RFC 12 Mullingar RFC 20
Robbie Williams, Dundalk is tackled by Darach Geraghty and Dónal Liddy, Mullingar, during the Leinster League 1A game at Mill Road. Photo: Aidan Dullaghan/Newspics
There were plenty of positives to take for Dundalk RFC but ultimately they were left with nothing after a 20-12 loss at home to league leaders Mullingar on Sunday - the first time this season that Dundalk have failed to take anything from a match.
Conditions at Mill Road were excellent, if a little cold, but Dundalk were presented with an opportunity to take an early lead. After some good work they won a penalty close to the wing but Darragh Conroy’s shot at goal drifted wide.
From the restart Mullingar mauled their way inside the Dundalk 20 metre line before winning a penalty which they duly converted.
Dundalk were guilty of squandering chances once inside the Mullingar 22 and the Westmeath side took a 10-0 lead. Dundalk did halve the deficit when they mauled over a try late in the half, Zak Coan at the back of the maul touched down. Conroy duly added the extras to make it 10-7 at half-time.
Mullingar started the second-half brighter and scored an early try. Dundalk though fought back and looked to have scored their second try only for the referee to deemed the hosts were held up over the line. It was a close call but it went against the Louth team.
With Mullingar on the ropes Tiernan Gonnelly took a quick offload and broke through to make sure there could be no issue with his team’s second try. From a tight angle Conroy missed the conversion.
With 16 minutes remaining Dundalk won a penalty and in the same move Eoin Sullivan suffered a serious neck injury. With light fading the decision was made to switch pitches and allow Sullivan receive treatment on field.
Dundalk were due a penalty but owing to a rule that wasn’t fully explained the game restarted with a scrum which Dundalk lost. Mullingar then settled in and scored a third try to put the game beyond doubt.
The defeat leaves Dundalk very much in a relegation battle, five points ahead of DLSP whom they face next at Kirwan Park.
While they will be without Sullivan and Johnny Williams for the trip to Kilternan, Tommy Campbell is hopeful that Josh O’Hare will be available for what is a relegation play-off of sorts.
“Cill Dara are pretty much gone at this stage, so DLSP know if they lose this then they’ll probably be in the relegation play-off,” said Campbell.
“We need to win it also, it’s going to be a cup tie on Sunday and we spoke about it after the match. But we played well and the lads just need to be more clinical. We scored a try and they sat back a little and we can’t do that.”
Dundalk: Jamie Rafferty, Zak Coan, Simon O’Shea, Eoin Sullivan, Tadhg King, Philip Shekleton, David Feenan, Tiernan Gonnelly, Darragh Conroy, Conor Hennessy, James Shields, Ultan Murphy, Samanoa Euta, Lee O’Carroll, Robert Williams Replacements: Seán Arrowsmith, Darragh Maher, Laurence Steen, Cathal Purcell, David Murdock.
