With Letterkenny’s seconds away game to Derry postponed the firsts had the stage to themselves at Dave Gallagher Park. A sizeable crowd witnessed the good, the bad and the ugly as the home side and Strabane struggled through this Gordon West Cup fixture. The weather problems over the Christmas season having caused many cancellations in both the Cup competition and league.

Letterkenny       31                     Strabane      13
Do not be fooled by the scoreline, this was a tight , dour contest until fifteen minutes from the end and Letterkenny had to thank the opportunism of their backs for the lop sided final score with Boyd Robinson getting a converted try in the final minutes of the game.
Letterkenny dominated the early exchanges with good ball carrying from Captain Adam Moore, Damien Williamson at scrumhalf and John Anderson and were rewarded with a penalty decision from referee Shane Toolan after four minutes. However out half Boyd Robinson pulled his kick to the left of the posts. A second attack was well defended by the visitors and then on the fifteen minute mark Strabane went ahead with penalty conversion by their out half. With the Letterkenny set scrum badly out of sorts, their only solid possession came from their two lineout jumpers, Moore and Conor Dunleavy, whose height at the front of the line had the visitors in trouble on their throw in.  Twenty minutes in and the first Letterkenny try came from a good break up the left with blind side flanker John Anderson running in from fifteen metres. The difficult conversion was missed but the home side seemed in control despite their ailing scrum with good open play running from Moore and Andrew Gibson. Four minutes from the half time break a series of mistakes led to the visitors getting inside the Letterkenny twenty two where an offside decision saw the visitors go into the lead at 6 to 5. The home scrum was proving to be a major problem for the Letterkenny mentors and only fine defence kept Strabane from going over coming up to half time.
Playing with a slight breeze at their backs Letterkenny started well and kept possession well inside the visitors half in the early stages. Their reward came with fine try from full back Brian Peoples. Number eight Moore won the ball on the half way line and a good delayed pass put Peoples away on the right wing. The Milford man showed all his skills and strength to get over the line. At ten points to six Letterkenny would be expected to go ahead and win with ease but some poor ball handling and weak tackling did not help their cause. A good clearance from out half Robinson down the right resulted in a lineout throw to the home side and with Moore taking a fine catch in middle of the line they mauled up to the line where open side Jamie Boyle touched down near the right corner. Boyd Robinson found his kicking touch to send over the conversion and a seventeen to six lead. Full back Peoples scored a fine individual try on the twenty five minute mark with a jinking run down the left wing with Robinson adding the conversion from near the touchline to increase the Letterkenny lead to  twenty four to six . From the twenty eighth to the thirty fifth minute Letterkenny were inside their own twenty two and had a total of six penalties awarded against them for various transgressions. Their cause was not helped by having flanker John Anderson in the sin bin for most of this period. Strabane were eventually awarded a penalty try when a Letterkenny defence of a scrum went badly astray under their posts. The conversion brought their score to thirteen points and a possible fight back but it was not to be as scrum half Williamson re-acted quickly to a break down on the half way line and hack on with his out half Boyd Robinson winning the race over the line. Robinson again provided the last score with conversion and a thirty one to thirteen win. Newcomer Michael Turvey showed some good skills and made a good debut.

Next week sees the final matches in the group stage of the cup with Letterkenny travelling to Ballyshannon to play on the all weather surface there , a game crucial in deciding the winner of the section and a much improved performance is required if they are to get a result at that venue.

TEAM:
Anthony Gallagher, Brendan Smith, Kevin Mc Laughlin, Sean Dunleavy, Conor Dunleavy, John Anderson, Jamie Boyle, Adam Moore (captain), Damien Williamson, Boyd Robinson, Andrew Gibson, John Anthony mc Fadden, Michael Turvey, Anthony Mc Bride, Brian Peoples.