Irish Canadian Rugby Club 9 - Markham R.F.C 6
18 / 10 / 03
McCormick Cup Quarterfinals

Veteran fullback Gareth Pettigrew's 25 meter penalty from a sharp angle in the ninth minute of overtime took Irish Canadians past Markham 9-6 in Cup quarter final action in a thin, cold rain at Fletchers on Saturday.

The game began with almost instant pressure by the greens, but Pettigrew missed from 30 after a minute.

After eight minutes, Pettigrew converted from 25 to give Irish the lead. Markham dodged a bullet minutes later when referee Sean McDonough spotted a knock on from Seb Orsi's apparent try.  The greys then battled back into Irish territory and got a 40 meter kick from Kevin Pullen to draw even.

With numerous handling errors in the cold wet day, both teams were able to run through the phases, but not long enough to score. Pullens' second long range kick gave Markham a 6-3 lead, and Pettigrew's third attempt was off, leaving the visitors with a 6-3 lead at the interval.

The second half settled into a steady pattern of Irish pressure in the Markham, relieved by the sharp blast of the referees whistle.  Mark Thompson's apparent try off a line out, seemingly perfectly executed, was called back for some unseen offence, and the Irish still trailed.

At 64 minutes, Irish inserted Jason Verstraten, Mike Brown and Brett Domenchuk into the game, and the brave Markham defence began to waver.

Brad Boss tied the game with a kick in the 75th minute, and Irish, who had missed two other kicks in the half, nearly won it on a Peter Smith drop goal in injury time, but the kick sailed a foot wide.

Finally, in the first minute of sudden death, Boss had a sitter in front, but the classy halfback hit the upright to prolong the affair.  Again, Markham were unable to clear their zone despite four set piece awards in their favour, and gave away another penalty after nine minutes.  Pettigrew now stepped in and drilled the winner through the icy rain, and sent Irish to the final four for the seventh consecutive year (most in Ontario, ahead of Oakville and Beach with six and York with five).

"A bizarre game," said Irish coach Mark Winokur.  "Markham played fantastic defence, almost incredible considering the position and pressure against them.  All the players seemed to be baffled by the referees interpretation of the laws, however, so it could not have been spectacular to watch (penalty count was 26-11 in favour of Markham)."

Other games saw Beach edge York 33-26, ending the Yeomen string of three consecutive cup finals; Oakville over Aurora 27-5; and Brantford over the travelling Ottawa Irish 48-3.  The semis next week feature Irish at Brantford and Beach at Oakville.

The Irish Development side were full value for their 30-8 win over Markham, and also travel to Brantford next week.

"Obviously when you get to this stage (semis) all the games are tough." said Winokur, "we know we will be given little chance to win, but we will show up and give it a whirl anyway.  Most of the semis the last few years have been close games, and there may be some things we can do to tilt it our way.  Should be interesting."

The teams split the season series, Irish winning 16-3 in Toronto and Brantford winning 25-13 in Brantford.