Late Creggs rally can't halt Dromore's gallop
Dean O’Reilly is tackled during Creggs' AIL Junior Cup semi-final against Dromore at Creggs on Saturday afternoon. Picture: Gerard O'Loughlin
Creggs' dreams of All-Ireland Cup glory were dashed by a dominant Dromore side at The Green on Saturday afternoon.
While three late tries ensured a competitive look on the scoreboard at the end, the visiting Down club had been dominant up front and never gave Creggs any chance to show their attacking flair for the majority of the game.
Dromore hammered into an injury-hit Creggs front row while at the base of the scrum, Gary Dillon produced a Man of the Match performance in attack and defence to put Dromore on the front foot early and often.
Four of the five visiting tries came off first or second phase from the set piece, including the breakthrough score from centre Dean Dillon and a lineout maul that was touched down by Harry Long, scored while Creggs captain James Brandon was in the sin bin for a yellow card.
Creggs enjoyed some possession inside the Dromore '22 late in the first half but attempted offloads in two separate attacks from Shane Dowd and Nato Kiripati didn't quite go to hand after the two players had opened up the watertight defence with good runs.
By half-time Creggs had a world of work to do, 12-0 behind and with the breeze set to blow into their faces.
The third quarter saw Dromore cut loose to move 29 points clear. A stunning break from Dillon down the blindside saw him cover 50 metres of ground and then put scrum half Harvey Patterson away for a score.
Long repeated his trick of picking up possession on the lineout maul and scoring, and Samuel Dillon took advantage of a tiring, dishevelled Creggs defence to complete the scoring.
The home side regroup in the closing stages with Mark Purcell scoring twice and converting each time, while the last action of the game saw Eoghan Coyle get his reward for a hardworking display as he powered over the whitewash to reduce the margin even further.
