Sport

Irish sides get off to perfect starts

BRITISH AND IRISH CUP: Ulster Ravens 29 Bedford Blues 3 and Coventry 13 Munster A 20

Sat Nov 21 2009 - 00:00

BRITISH AND IRISH CUP:Ulster Ravens 29 Bedford Blues 3 and Coventry 13 Munster A 20

ULSTER RAVENS opened their account in the inaugural British and Irish Cup with a comfortable win at Ravenhill last night.

The Ravens also managed to earn maximum points, after scoring four tries in the first half, and this seemed to be sufficient for all as neither side manufactured a single score in the second half.

The Ravens scored first when after just six minutes Ballymena winger Tommy Seymour got on the end of a Paul Marshall kick to cross the line and give Niall O’Connor his opening points with the conversion.

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Ulster are at Moseley next week in Pool C, which also includes London Welsh and sides from Aberavon and Llanelli.

ULSTER RAVENS:C Schifcoske (I Humphreys 67); T Seymour, J Shiels, I Whitten (capt), C Cochrane (J Smith 63); N O'Connor, P Marshall (C Willis 63); B Young (P McCallister 65), A Kyriacou (N Brady 52), D Fitzpatrick (B Young 73), D Tuohy, N McComb, D Pollock (E O'Donoghue), W Faloon, Ti Horua.

BEDFORD BLUES:B Burke; O Dodge (L Roberts 40), J Knight, M Dorrian, I Davey; B Davies (D Taylor 53), I Vass (capt); A Brown (P Boulton 50), C Locke, D Seal, M Howard (A Rae 69), J Harlock, G Gillanders, C Brightwell, C Goodman.

Referee:L Roberts (RFU).

MUNSTER OPENED their campaign on a winning note, but were hanging on at the finish as Coventry’s forwards led a storming second-half comeback at the Butts Park Arena last night.

With half-backs Declan Cussack and Duncan Williams pulling the strings, Munster opened the defence in the first half, scoring three tries, and a fourth early in the second half would have put them out of reach but for Cussack’s failure to convert any.

But Coventry shored up their defence and put the visitors under forward pressure to score two drive-over tries from lineouts and were left to reflect on their own kicking failures with only one success from six attempts at goal.

SCORES: Coventry – Tries Roberts (64), Merrigan (80); Penalty Carlisle (27). Munster – Tries D Williams (2), Coughlan (13), Gleeson (38), Nagle (41).

COVENTRY:Winter; Frewin, Locke, C Lewis (Mackenzie 56), Hurrell; Carlisle (Thomas 68), Walls; Davis (Rioberts h-t), McMillan, Dugard (Hall h-t), Brenton, McGowan (Dechartres h-t), Herrington (Askew 56), Bignell, Venter.

MUNSTER:Jones (Burke 80); Barnes, Gleeson, Deasy, Hurley; Cussack (Zebo 73), D Williams (Rowley 56); Brugnaut (Kilcoyne 52), Sherry (Henry 70), Archer (Kilcoyne h-t), Nagle, Foley, N Williams (O'Callaghan 78), Ronan, Coughlan (O'Mahony 75).

Referee:D Bodilly (Wales RFU).