Longford exited the provincial town’s cup in the cruellest fashion as a late Carlow try, grabbed a one point victory.
It looked like another possible long day for Longford, as Carlow put them under early pressure early on.
A relatively easy try and conversion gave the hosts a seven point start. Conversely. Longford’s play featured some great running rugby. No doubt honed on their new 4G pitch and bamboozled the Carlow defence for most the first half.
Longford’s enterprising play earned them a converted try courtesy of Aaron Beirne in the 12th minute.
Longford nearly undid their good work when they conceded a kickable penalty from a messy kick-off receipt. However, Carlow did not convert, leaving the score at 7 apiece.
Longford came right back at Carlow and went the length of the pitch scoring in the corner courtesy of George McDermott.
The try was initiated by Cormac Hughes who received a Carlow kick in the Longford 22. Hughes went on a mazy run, crossing half-way before the ball was worked through the hands, carving out the try scoring opportunity.
Longford continued piling on the pressure and were on top at this stage and looking good for another try or two.
Just as it looked like another score was inevitable Longford knocked the ball-on in the process of touching down. The frustration grew further as Longford continued to pile on the pressure they were held up on the Carlow line.
Two tries went a-begging and ultimately this would cost Longford. Longford held a five point lead at the break, 7-12 for all the pressure and territory they had exerted.
The second-half was a much more even affair, Carlow gradually gained the upper hand.
However, Longford registered the first score of the second-half courtesy of a Joe McGowan long range penalty after 15 minutes.
There followed a lot of shadow boxing for ten minutes, when disaster struck from Longford.
A kick over the top was cleanly caught, but a poor pass back resulted in Longford conceding a turnover. Courtesy of the player being held up resulting in a Carlow scrum 10 minutes out from the Longford line.
Carlow worked the ball right, then left and eventually just squeezed over in the corner for a converted try. Narrowing Longford’s lead to only one point.
However, one last big effort by the hosts looked to have booked a ticket into the second round. When they worked their way up the pitch and secured another kickable penalty.
McGowan again converted to give Longford a four point lead, 14-18 at the end of normal time.
Longford gathered the kick-off and looked to wind down the clock with some pick and goes and close in carries.
Hind sight is 20/20 vision, the better option was probably to have kicked the ball and force Carlow to play from deep.
Eventually a Longford player got isolated giving Carlow a penalty 25 metres out. Knowing they needed a try Carlow kicked for the corner.
A herculean effort stopped the Carlow driving maul. Carlow then worked the ball to the right but the Longford defence held firm.
In spite of this the referee adjudged Longford had committed an offence on the right awarding Carlow another penalty they again kicked to the corner and again Longford held out their maul.
However, Carlow worked the ball left eventually going over for the match winning try in the left hand corner with the last play of the game!
Longford Squad: P O’Farrell, H Connolly (C), D Quinn, B McManus, D Geelan, J Geelan, M McHugh, Aaron Beirne, F McGowan, A Wynne, J McGowan, D McHugh, G McDermott, C Hughes, R McHugh, P Molloy, J Forde, Andrew Beirne & D Connolly.
Post-match Reaction from Longford RFC Head Coach Glenn Baskett
“It is incredibly hard to take losing that one today. I felt we were the better team today and Carlow lived off our play as opposed to us off them.
And early error from the kick off had us seven down in the first couple of minutes but after that we controlled the first half.
Two really well taken tries had us up at half-time but we also left two out there at their line and I did think those two missed opportunities could hurt us. That turned out to be the case with Carlow scoring six minutes into injury time with the last play of the game on the back of a couple of penalties to snatch a one point win.
But we shouldn’t have let them back if I’m honest, we probably needed to manage the pitch better late on.
However to see the boys in the sheds afterward, so hurt by the loss showed how hard they worked and how much it meant. I thought our bench was excellent today and all five boys made an impact which is what you want. Now we’ve got a J2 second round cup match v Cill Dara to prep for and we now look to the towns played draw in a few weeks to see where our season goes from here.”
2nd XV
Longford second XV’s Provincial Towns Cup First Round match was conceded by Boyne. In the second Round draw, Longford were drawn to play Division 1B rivals Cill Dara away on March 26th.
