Friday, October 2, 2009

Leinster and Ulster take Interpro initiative

After day one of the boy's interprovincials, Leinster and Ulster look set for a straight duel for the U-16 and U-18 honours after they picked up a quartet of comfortable wins over Munster at Belfield this afternoon


Ulster's U-16s opened the weekend’s action with a comprehensive 5-0 win over Munster, building up a 3-0 half-time lead. Matthew Allister bagged a brace while Irish U-16 Josh Moffett was also on target.

Jeremy Duncan, meanwhile spear-headed Leinster U-16's 5-1 win over the southerners. Three stunning feints of the stick opened the space in the circle for the Kilkenny player to aerial into the net. Richard Kingston batted in from close range to equalise for Munster but with a minute Ross Canning swept in a right-wing move for 2-1.

And the St Columba's player laid on for Duncan to score his second. Canning's simple first time ball fed Duncan on half-way and he out-stripped the last defender and crashed in a 3-1 half-time lead. Canning deflected in David Cole's fine through ball and Kirk Shimmins snapped up a fifth goal to mark a top performance.

In the U-18 competition, Stephen Dowds’ double inside the first six minutes set up Ulster’s 4-1 win. Stephen Swanton pulled one back in the 11th minute but Ian Sloan and Owen Magee stretched out the lead to 4-1 before the break as Ben Dobson sat out a five minute suspension.

The second half was scoreless as Munster defended the circle well and won a pair of corners but the Northern province still had plenty of chances to extend the lead.

Leinster began their campaign with a 4-2 victory but will need to raise the intensity in days two and three as they lacked a certain urgency in the first half against Munster. Andrew Shekleton slotted home an early baseline pull-back but Nick Burns punished sloppy defensive work to tuck in a shot between a near post and two scrambling defenders for 1-1 at half-time.

Two Shane O'Donoghue penalty corner strikes either side of Luke Chadwick's peach built up a 4-1 lead but a scrappy Swanton touch left Leinster in second in the table on goal difference.

U-18 results: Ulster 4 (Stephen Dowds 2, Ian Sloan, Owen Magee) Munster 1 (Stephen Swanton); Leinster 4 (Shane O'Donoghue 2, Andrew Shekleton, Luke Chadwick) Munster 2 (Nick Burns, Stephen Swanton)
U-16 results: Ulster 5 (Matthew Allister 2, James Cox, Josh Moffett, James Lorimer) Munster 0; Leinster 5 (Jeremy Duncan 2, Ross Canning 2, Kirk Shimmins) Munster 1 (Richard Kingston)

* Adrian Boehm's photos from Leinster vs Munster U-16 can be seen here and the U-18 set are here. For more photos from today's Ulster vs Munster U-18 game, click here.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

let me guess luke chadwick scored another reverse top corner

Stephen Findlater said...

Actually was a superbly placed, open side hit to the bottom right-hand corner. Very tidy piece of work.

Anonymous said...

ah ok cool he saves those spectacular reverse hits for matches against andrews. The one in last years final was amazing but the one he scored in a friendly a few weeks ago was even better

Anonymous said...

Leinster U18 a bit dissapointing.... low ball pace, too much dribbling. I expected a bit more of this quality side. Hope they can improve in the tournament. 2 corners made the difference against a weak Munster.

Anonymous said...

His reverse was class this morning against Ulster.....