Longford Senior Men’s J1 side lost their four match unbeaten run when they came away from Mullingar with nothing to show for their efforts.
Longford did not help their cause by conceding three kickable penalties straight from the kick-off, being uncharacteristically porous in defence and struggling to get a lineout platform.
The game was played at a temperature of only 5°C on Mullingar’s synthetic pitch. Although Longford started the better, Mullingar began to get on top, spending a lot of time in the Longford half.
However, time and again Longford’s defence remained firm, eventually turning over the ball and clearing the line.
Indeed, Longford’s ‘exits’ from their own 22 were generally spot on and well executed. Despite all the pressure it was Longford who opened the scoring on the 30 minute mark from the boot of Ryan McHugh.
Disaster struck after all the hard work, Longford conceded a penalty from the kick-off, allowing Mullingar to even the scores.
Longford pilled on the pressure and after a series of attacks on the Mullingar line and goal-line drop outs, Longford came away with another penalty, when they badly needed a try.
It was ground hog-day for Longford, giving away a penalty straight from the kick-off, allowing the scores to be levelled.
Although Longford had another attacking opportunity before half-time, their line out again creaked and the opportunity was lost.
The 6-6 half-time score-line set up a potentially great second-half but unfortunately this was nearly exclusively for the hosts. Mullingar showed more energy and want than Longford, in a performance reminiscent of the way Longford played during their four match unbeaten run.
Mullingar scored early in the second-half. A driving maul was spread wide for their 13 to go over a bit too easily.
They quickly followed this up with a second eight minutes after poor tackling from the away side, leaving the score 20-6 and Longford with a mountain to climb.
To their credit Longford tried hard but Longford’s carries were generally met with two men in the home defence making it very difficult for Longford to make head way.
Mullingar’s defence was on the edge all day and they eventually ended up with 13 men for a period due to persistent infringements.
Even at that Longford were finding it hard to cross the white wash but eventually did so after moving the ball from a scrum across the back line to make their superior numbers count and going in in the corner to leave the score 20-11 with 11 minutes to go. That was as good as it got for Longford, as they gave away another penalty straight from the kick off to allow Mullingar with a yellow card to Longford to boot. To add insult to injury Mullingar ran in one more try before full time to leave the final score 25-11.
Longford: P’O Farrell, H Connolly, D Quinn, D Geelan, B McManus, M McHugh, K O’Gorman, J Bennett, N Farrell, A Wynne, D Connolly, D McHugh, G McDermott, J McGowan, R McHugh, L Brady, J Geelan, Andrew Beirne, A Campbell, C Hughes
