Boyne sealed the 2009 Newstalk Provincial Towns Cup for the first time in their history with a 27-21 victory over a brave Tullamore at Ashbourne RFC on Sunday afternoon…
Boyne full-back Niall Kerbey was the man of the match thanks to his 17-point haul in a fine all-round display and opened the scoring in the 11th minute with a try. After 25 minutes Boyne centre Richard Downey touched down, with Kerbey converting a difficult effort from the touchline, to extend the lead to 12-0.
Tullamore’s response was immediate and left winger Colin Hughes scored an unconverted try two minutes later.
Out-half Gearoid O’Grady added a penalty to make the score 12-8 before a frenetic a frenetic scoring frenzy saw Brian Howell touch down for Boyne, with Kerbey converting.
The Offaly side’s lock forward Brian Geraghty touched down to make it 19-15, before Kerbey added a penalty on the stroke of half-time to make it 22-15 at the interval.
O’Grady was first out of the blocks in the second half with a 47th minute penalty goal and for the next 15 minutes it was nip and tuck until the decisive score in the match which came from Kerbey in the 63rd minute, though he missed the conversion.
Tullamore skipper O’Grady narrowed the gap to six points three minutes later with a 30-metre penalty goal, but try as they might they couldn’t break down the resolute Boyne defence.
Boyne held on to delirious celebrations to lift the Towns Cup for the first time in their history.
BOYNE SCORERS: N. Kerbey (2 tries, 2 conversions, 1 penalty), R. Downey / B. Howell (1 try each)
TULLAMORE SCORERS: C. Hughes / B. Geraghty (1 try each), G. O’Grady (3 penalties, 1 conversion)
TULLAMORE: 15: Niall Geraghty, 14: Mark Whelan, 13: Ivor Scully, 12: Aaron Deverell, 11: Colin Hughes, 10: Gearoid O’Grady CAPTAIN, 9: Richie Hughes; 1: Ronan Glennon, 2: Cian Glennon, 3: Alvin Bracken, 4: Dave Hanlon, 5: Brian Geraghty, 6: Donal Milne, 7: Cathal Feighery, 8: Colin Finnerty
REPLACEMENTS FROM: Cian O’Sullivan, Ronan Scally, Andy Melville, Derek Farrell, Philip Gardiner, Mick Harte, Darragh Lowry
BOYNE: 15: Niall Kerbey, 14: Adam Sherrard, 13: Bevan Duffy, 12: Richard Downey, 11: Brian Howell, 10: Brian Collins, 9: Craig McGrath CAPTAIN; 1: Cillian Duffy, 2: Brendan Muldowney, 3: Paddy Cooney, 4: Paddy Muldowney, 5: Ian O’Reilly, 6: Vico Vorster, 7: Hadley Dryden, 8: Eoin Collins
REPLACEMENTS: 16: Patrick Shuttleworth, 17: Laurence McEvoy, 18: John O’Callaghan, 19: George Kennedy, 20: Paul Rice
REFEREE: Dudley Phillips (ARLB)