Letterkenny  20 : 0 Monaghan   

Letterkenny maintained their unbeaten home record in the wind and rain of Dave Gallaher Park on Saturday past and at the end were well worth their margin of victory. Monaghan, who are just below Letterkenny in the league table, showed very little enterprise apart from a five minute spell near the end and only a dogged defence from the visitors prevented Letterkenny running up a big score line. The home pack showed their intention from the start and with a useful mixture of rolling maul and pick and drive had the Monaghan men back inside their own twenty two. After seven minutes veteran outhalf Boyd Robinson put the Letterkenny men ahead with a penalty in front of the Monaghan posts. Straight from the next kick off, Letterkenny won a penalty and opted to go for the lineout, twenty metres from the Monaghan line. An excellent rolling maul saw flanker Jamie Boyle get over for a try just to the right of the posts. The conversion brought up a scoreline of 10 – 0 with less than ten minutes gone. The away team had great difficulty getting out of their twenty two but their defence held out until a further penalty from Robinson on the twenty five minute mark. From then until half time Letterkenny enjoyed the lion’s share of possession but failed to add to the scoreboard.

Letterkenny faced the wind and rain in the second period but scrumhalf Damien Williamson put the result beyond doubt after six minutes. Getting possession forty metres from the Monaghan line, he sprinted towards the centre of the Monaghan defence, gave a delightful chip, collected the ball and went over for an excellent individual try. The conversion was put over by Robinson, which left the score line 20 -0. To their credit, the Monaghan men never gave up and bombarded the Letterkenny defence with hard running for the last five minutes but the home teams line held solid. Best for Letterkenny were loose head prop Kevin Mc Loughlin aka “The Churchill Flyer”, Captain Adam Moore at number eight with his fellow back rowers John Anderson and Jamie Boyle. Behind the scrum Damien Williamson had another excellent game at his new position of scrumhalf, whilst Boyd Robinsons kicking for posts was nearly flawless, nearly!

Team: Kevin Mc Loughlin, Brendan Smith, Ray Clarke, Shay Blaney, Connor Dunleavy, Jamie Boyle, Adam Moore (Capt), John Anderson, Damien Williamson, Boyd Robinson, Andrew Gibson, John Anthony Mc Fadden, Jason Daly, Tony McBride, Brian Peoples.