BoI U16 Munster Cup - Group 3 - Skibbereen 3 Killarney 12

Killarney U16s maintained their unbeaten run with a hard-fought win over Skibbereen on Saturday. Played in drizzly, damp conditions this was a tough encounter. Skibbereen opened the scoring with a long range penalty after 10 minutes.

Killarney dominated territory for the next 10 and kept Skibbereen on the defensive. They finally broke through with a try from Billy O'Donoghue in the left corner after a forward pressure forced Skibbereen to defend narrowly and we were able to successfully go wide. The difficult angle meant the conversion was not successful. Before half-time, Skibbereen had a long period of pressure on the Killarney line and some terrific tackling stopped them on the line and drove them back repeatedly. The siege ended with a penalty to Killarney - which was kicked dead to end the half.

In the second half, we played up the slope but had some aid from the breeze which was blowing in the same direction. 5-3 remained a precarious lead- but with smart kicking we pinned Skibbereen dep and prevented them launching their big ball carriers at us from close range. Midway through the second half we gained good field position and camped on the Skibbereen line - David Courtney executed a smart "quarterback sneak" to score the second try. Cathal Sugrue's conversion put us two scores to the good at 12-3. The remaining minutes were hard work but we held firm to record a satisfying victory.

Tries - O'Donoghue, Courtney; Con - Sugrue;