Boyne score Leinster league win over Longford 12 to 8

t was another case of so near but so far for Longford in their second league game of the season.

They had enough chances to record a great away victory to a fancied Boyne side. In the end they had to settle for a losing bonus point as Boyne rallied late, Joe McGowan’s fantastic long range penalty.

The performance to a man was excellent and remarkable because Longford had 29 players unavailable through injury and other commitments. This meant the second XV match had to be postponed and the Longford first XV had a very youthful appearance.

Boyne like to get the ball wide at every opportunity but were well closed down by the Longford backline aided by the forwards with Hubie Connolly and Mark McHugh particularly conspicuous.

Boyne attempted to maul towards the Longford line on a few occasions early in the first-half. The Longford defensive lineout put them under a lot of pressure all day with the Longford’s maul defence also good.

Moreover; both hookers had a difficult time of it with the swirling wind. After not achieving any success with their lineout maul, Boyne opted to try for goal with three penalties.

The first two were missed but, some indiscipline from the away side on 25 minutes gave Boyne an easy shot to record the first score of the match.

The last 15 minutes saw Longford turn the tables putting pressure on Boyne. Resulting in a well worked try by George McDermott to give Longford a narrow two point lead 3-5.

Boyne came back looking for a try of their own but a great tackle by out-half Danny McHugh saved Longford from a certain try and saw the half time score stay narrowly in Longford’s favour.

Longford would have been feeling good about their chances with the wind at their back going into the second-half. A yellow card was dished out for a no arms tackle within one minute of the restart, not the start they were looking for.

This did not pause the Longford momentum who gradually go on top and resulted in Boyne receiving a yellow card of their own a few minutes later.

Longford clearly had Boyne rattled through a mixture of good kicking and hard carrying. However, like the previous week versus Wicklow the last pass eluded Longford, with a tad more of composure also called for at times.

Unfortunately, Longford’s momentum was severely disrupted by an injury which required a prolonged period of treatment meaning the match actually moved to another pitch to finish.

Longford turned up well and had a period where they assaulted the Boyne line for upwards of 15 phases. The forwards kept it in a bit too long when a few passes out the backline would have seen a certain try and ultimately the ball was turned over.

This heralded a period of dominance for Boyne who first kicked a penalty and then ultimately went over for a try to leave the score 13-5 with about five minutes to go.

Longford regrouped and moved up the pitch earning two penalties, which while kickable were difficult in the swirling wind.

Joe McGowan narrowly missed the first but had no hesitation going for the second.

McGowan ultimately knocked it over earning Longford a losing bonus point, the minimum they deserved for such a gallant effort.

Longford J Forde, H Connolly, P O’Farrell, B McManus, Andrew Beirne, Aaron Beirne, M McHugh, A Campbell, F McGowan, D McHugh, D Connolly, G McDermott, C Hughes, J McGowan, R Shaw, P Kirk, K Adejimni, J Geelan, S Murphy and K O’Gorman.

Longford take a break next weekend before resuming league action at home to Cill Dara on Sunday October 10^th.