Clogher Valley 15 Wanderers 38

The Valley entertained Wanderers on Saturday in the first home game in the AIL 2B league and a tough afternoon it proved to be.

Wanderers from the prestigious Dublin 4 area are one of the oldest clubs in Ireland and have been used to plying their trade at a higher level.

The opening 10 minutes were a bit of a shock. The visitors play the game with precision, pace and power which the Valley initially struggled to contain. Both set pieces struggled in the first quarter but were to improve as the game progressed.

Five minutes in Wanderers sent a penalty into the Valley '22 metre area.

After a good lineout and a go forward maul the ball was moved wide for a centre to crash over for the first try. It went unconverted but they had points on the score board.

Five minutes later they repeated the same ploy.

Penalty to the corner followed by a strong maul but this time the forwards wanted their piece of glory and drove over for a well-worked try.

Clogher gradually worked their way into the visitor's half and threatened for a period.

Matthew Bothwell ducked and dived around several defenders before being taken down illegally in front of posts. Out-half David Maxwell landed the three points with ease.

At the beginning of the second quarter Wanderers missed a penalty in front of posts but would go on to dominate field territory.

The Valley defence was enormous, Matthew Bothwell’s tackle count was incredible as was the entire back-row of Jamie Allen, David Stinson and Callum Smyton.

The visitors were then held up over the line as they pressed to increase their advantage.

Eventually after the ball passed through multiple hands they scored out wide and followed up with a conversion to leave 14 points in it at half-time.

The opening period of the second-half saw the Valley in the ascendancy.

After four minutes Allen made a great break and Matthew Bothwell in support capitalised to touch down for the Valley's first try. Maxwell added the extras reducing the arrears to a converted try.

The home support sensed a change and urged the side forward.

The scrum was now dominant and probably should have led to another try. Several scrum penalties and resets pinned Wanderers on their own line.

But despite this constant pressure and calls for a penalty try, it was not to be as Callum Smyton was held up as he surged off the back of another scrum.

The Valley kept up the pressure and after several strong carries space was created for Taine Haire to squeeze in at the corner for their second try. The touch line conversion was narrowly missed but now the deficit was only two points.

Playing last season in AIL 2C, the bigger heavier packs faded in the second period but this was not the case with Wanderers.

They came back strong in the final quarter.

In defence the Valley were solid with Luke Russell making some massive hits. It developed into a midfield battle for a while but any time the visitors made it to the Valley '22 metre area they scored.

On three more occasions they breached the Valley defensive line resulting in a flattering 38-15 victory.

Elsewhere in the club, the 2nd SV narrowly lost 22 -26 against Lisburn 1st XV in the Junior Shield. The senior ladies won their opening match in Championship A 50-0 at City of Derry while U18 and U16 girls both lost to Enniskillen.

The U18 boys lost to Monaghan, the U16 boys won while the U14 boys lost also playing Monaghan.

Next Saturday the 1st XV are off to Galway for their third game in AIL 2B.