Irish Canadian Rugby Club 18 -
Young Canada 29
24 / 04 / 05
Exhibition Match
Young Canada work hard to defeat Irish
On
a cold wet day in Oakville, Jake Osborne’s two tries led Young Canada past the
Irish Canadians 29-18 in an hard-fought pre-season contest before 300 fans.
Young
Canada, in the second game of their five game tour, burst from the gate and led
12-0 after 10 minutes on tries from man of the match Stan Mckeen and hooker Dave
Neill.
Weathering
the two scores and six straight penalties against, the Irish countered with a
well worked line out drive, hooker Steve Orchard touching down. The game began
to even out in the wet conditions, and Irish out-half Ed Gardner closed the gap
to 12-8 on the half hour, before a seven phase ruck and run resulted in a second
green score from eight man Steve Conlon, giving the Irish a 15-12 halftime lead.
Young
Canada went extensively to the bench in the second half, and finally regained
the lead at 17-15 on the first of Osborne's scores. Former Irish fullback
Simon Dunne stung his former mates with a try in the sixty second minute to up
the lead to 24-15. The Irish clawed their way back from a
“For
a first full game out, not bad” said Irish coach Mark Winokur, “the
conditions slowed things down, but the physical contact part was good on both
sides, and if we can build on this, we may be OK this year.”
Young
Canada coach John Macmillan for his part, was pleased with the win despite the
conditions and noted that the wet ground “didn’t allow either team to really
get going, but the effort was certainly there.”
Young
Canada now face the Niagara Thunder in