Finn Harps 1
Sligo Rovers 2
Chris McNulty reports from Finn Park
LIAM BUCKLEY RECORDED his first win as Sligo Rovers boss as the Bit O’Red overcame derby rivals Finn Harps.
Romeo Parkes and Kris Twardek bagged their first goals in Sligo’s colours to move their side above Harps in the standings.
Sligo broke the deadlock in the 18th minute when Parkes scampered onto Twardek’s through ball. Parkes coolly rounded Harps ‘keeper Peter Burke and the Jamaican international tucked home.
Parkes had earlier failed to hit the target when he connected with a testing Ronan Murray free.
The visitors doubled their lead when Twardek prodded past Burke from a fine corner by Donegal native Jack Keaney.
It looked like game over for the hosts, but Daniel O’Reilly’s bullet header brought Harps to life – and firmly back into the tie – 11 minutes into part two.
Parkes, with a chance to put the game beyond Harps, flashed a header wide, while O’Reilly managed to somehow deflect away from Dante Leverock’s close-range attempt.
Harps were without Sam Todd, nominated for the Player of the Month award after a superb start to the season, but Ollie Horgan was able to include Mark Russell, the former Morton and Falkirk left-back for his debut.
Sligo legend Raffaele Cretaro, who signed for Harps in the close season having made over 500 appearances for the his home club faced his former employers.
The best Harps mustered in the first half was a Nathan Boyle lob that failed to hit the target, while O’Reilly’s free deflected wide of the target.
Finn Park was silenced when Sligo added their second, but the hosts showed plenty of endeavour, though their forays lacked a potent touch.
O’Reilly gave them hope, but Harps – bar a couple of set pieces, which the visitors dealt with – were unable to really threaten Beeney in the second half.
Finn Harps: Peter Burke; Jacob Borg, Keith Cowan, Daniel O’Reilly; John Kavanagh, Raffaele Cretaro, Mark Coyle (Niall McGinley 84), Gareth Harkin, Mark Russell (Caolan McAleer 55); Nathan Boyle, Sean Boyd (Mikey Place 79).
Sligo Rovers: Mitchell Beeney; Niall Morahan, Dante Leverock, John Mahon, Lewis Banks; Jack Keaney (David Cawley 87), Kyle Callan-McFadden (Sam Warde 24); Kris Twardek, Ronan Murray (Daryl Fordyche 90), Liam Kerrigan; Romeo Parkes.
Referee: Derek Tomney.
Bernard Jackman joins Murray Kinsella and Gavan Casey to discuss the backlash to World Rugby’s league proposal, captaincy styles, sports psychology and more in The42 Rugby Weekly.
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Spot on.
I share the undercooked concern. Choose close to full team, rest anyone with a niggle or still jaded from last weeks heat. Warm ups are over, time to build momentum.
Murray; first of all, I have really enjoyed the podcasts so far from France, so thank you for that.
My amateur opinion is that they should go full strength and treat the SA game like a final. Even if it’s a narrow loss, they’ll know that they’re close to the standard required to win the competition. If they win, then the belief will become huge. You have to bear in mind that Ireland have had some less good performances last Autumn and in the 6N, but they’re kept winning and so surely they have that winning mindset. This is pretty rare and the winning run is worth fighting for.
One question for you would be about training. I’d be happy if they were having a few savage full contact sessions, as these may be tougher than a match against a tier 2 nation, but the squad size is restricted so this may not be possible. Would this be another argument for going full strength against Tonga? I’d really like to see the line out attack come back and to deny Tonga from scoring a try.
Maybe the answer to this in 4 years is to line up top opposition in friendlies leading into the world cup. I get they need to get the A team up to 100% preperation firing for the SA game but at the expense of picking up injuries again the minnows before then is a risky plan…
@Stuart: You are probably right… but I think the IRFU found it difficult to line up a game against other tier 1 nations. The England game was probably lined up from 4 years ago. Maybe they left it too late to arrange the others and it wouldn’t be extraordinary to think that they were disorganised or complacent.
@Stuart: apparently other top tier nations turned down playing against Ireland in the summer internationals. Not sure if they left it too late or if other teams felt it would show their hand too much.
In all likelihood yourself and the others on media duties are aware of the team (as normal) but cannot spell it out BUT you’re trying to slowly row your way back from the, way off, potential team you posted a few days ago…. Nice try. It’ll be about 12 from first 15 and Big Joe may be on his way to being first 15 with anyone carrying minor niggle sitting it out. Murray knew a few weeks ago Big Joe would get his shot
Are we not finding excuses to talk ourselves into the very same situation that killed us in previous world cups – ie no trust in the wider squad and thereby overloading the core group? What you are saying, Murray, is that should Ireland win the WC, they would play basically the same team for 6 matches in a row (with only minor alterations from the remaining 7th game). That’s a tough message to the squad and it does not fit the McCloskey inclusion.
@John Morris: nah, I dont think so. We played a weakened team vs Japan 4 yrs ago and look what happened. Plus we play our best team in 6 nations each game for most part with slight adjustments for Italy. Look at what southern hemisphere do – play their strongest team pretty much for rugby championship and some warm ups. And they win every world cup except 1. I think Murray’s article is very well put together and I would agree full strength is required. Its not equal game time for all, go games style. These are fully grown men playing professional sport so get on with it. They;; be called upon if injury strikes. Thats the idea of a squad of grown men
Gonna be an interesting call, they can probably win with a 2nd string side but agree we should put out close to our strongest . Only player I would definitely look to leave out from the 23 is Porter and keep him fresh for SA. We can bring in the likes of Baird , Henderson, Henshaw , McCloskey and Byrne (sub) and steam roll Tonga
@Owen ODonoghue: Spot on about Porter. He is the one player we cannot afford to lose to injury. Playing against SA without him would be scary.
@Owen ODonoghue: Getting hard to see Byrne in the mix, no doubt he’ll be thereabouts for this game tho.
We’re at risk of Eddie O’Sullivan 2007 territory here by playing the same team every weekend. Given the likely hard slog against Scotland and every weekend thereafter they need to rotate this weekend