Dolphin 17

Corinthians 45

Corinthians continued to put pressure on leaders Instonians at the top of Division 2B of the AIL with a comprehensive win over Dolphin in a game played on Friday night at Musgrave Park in Cork, with the bonus-point win temporarily putting them top of the table until Instonians overcame Sligo 52-19 on Saturday afternoon.

Corinthians hit hard and hit early on Ffriday night to get the weekend action underway after a rest week for the league. The opening try followed a line out that was collected and fed out the line. With possession in hand, scrum-half Matthew Devine got through the cover and with the pack in support, fed to centre Harry Rogers to touch down.

The second try again came from a Max Holmes lineout with Rory Glynn collecting and from the driving maul, Corinthians powered over with Holmes at the bottom of the pile with the ball and the try.

Corinthians were 19-0 up and flying, with try number three possibly a nomination for try of the season. A Dolphin kick-off was collected and fed to Finn McNulty, who ran from inside his own 10-metre line and shipped two tackles to score what was simply a brilliant try for the visitors. Sean Naughton, who had nailed the first two conversions, was unlucky not to see the third go over but at this stage, Corinthians were now looking very good at 19-0 ahead.

Dolphin were handed a lifeline when the referee awarded them a penalty try even though it looked as if nothing illegal had happened, and a further penalty reduced the deficit to 19-10 at half-time.

Corinthians were stung, and they pushed on, scoring the bonus point with a fine try by Mark Boyle after Glynn made the line break following the offload from Boyle and nearly got over himself only to be stopped inches from the line. The ball recycled to the number eight who went over for the score.

Pictured: Sean Walsh of Corinthians, who featured on the Irish U-18 Clubs team against Italy on Saturday evening. He was one of nine Connacht players in the squad, as the game also featured the Galwegians duo of Paul Sharkey and Rory Gavin; Charlie O’Carroll and Jack Pollard of Buccaneers; Dunmore RFC’s Christopher Donlon; Joseph Smyth of Ballinasloe; Rory Lyons of Westport; and Diarmaid O’Connell of Carrick-on-Shannon