Port leave it late against Dundalk

Portarlington left it late but secured the points against Dundalk in a highly entertaining game at Lea Road running in five tries in the process.

Port started the game brightly with scrum half Jack Mallon feeding his back line with quick ball from the very first whistle and it only took eight minutes for them to open the scoring as the impressive Eoin Maher raced away to score in the corner after out half Adam Lambkin had drawn the defence before feeding his winger.

This score was followed shortly by another try, this time from pacey full back James Bryan who latched onto a Mikey Bennett pass before crossing. Glen Hassett added the extras and Port led by 12-0.

At this point Dundalk looked to take it to Port through their big pack and this immediately paid dividends as they capitalised on their superior organisation and aggression at the breakdown. They then began to turn the screw in defence and before too long their pack had powered over for two tries of their own and the sides were level. Dundalk took the lead when they won a Portarlington lineout to make it 17 unanswered points and the momentum was with the Louth outfit.

Port had chances to retake the lead before the break but they failed to capitalise on a couple of overlaps and at half time the score was 12-17.

A stern talking to seemed to have done the trick as Port came out fired up for the second half and it wasn’t long before the sides were level when they again made space out wide for another brilliantly executed touchline dash from Eoin Maher.

However Dundalk responded quickly and their well taken try meant that they led by five and this time they looked to hold on to their lead as they continued to dominate up front.

With only three minutes remaining Dundalk looked to be heading towards victory until Port broke from their own 22. Lambkin fed Bryan and his pass found Maher who again proved too quick and strong for the cover defence and the wide man touched down in the corner for his hat trick score and the sides were level for the third time. From the touchline, and against a challenging breeze, it seemed unlikely that Hassett would be able to find a lead score for his side but he struck the conversion beautifully and split the posts to take a two point lead.

Dundalk now needed to find a way to turnover possession from the restart and their committed kick chase caused some confusion in the Port defence but the home side scrambled the ball wide to Hassett and the number eight galloped up the touchline to score a deserved try which he converted.

There were eye catching performances from hooker David Egan and winger Warren Walsh however it was Eoin Maher who took the Man of the Match award as he completely controlled his wing in both attack and defence.

Portarlington Team: Daniel Bennett, David Egan, Ronan Henry, Shane Lawlor, Mishael Cornells, Lee Cuddihy, Jake Fitzpatrick, Glen Hassett, Jack Mallon (Captain), Adam Lambkin, Séan Michael Corcoran, Mikey Bennett, Conor Noone-Sharpe, Eoin Maher, James Bryan, Warren Murray, Dean Moody, Séan Cullen.