Sport

Bective reach first final

An excellent rearguard action saw Bective Rangers upstage Clontarf in last night's Old Belvedere Floodlit Cup semi-final at Anglesea…

By RORY KERR
Wed Nov 10 1999 - 00:00

An excellent rearguard action saw Bective Rangers upstage Clontarf in last night's Old Belvedere Floodlit Cup semi-final at Anglesea Road.

Clontarf, the back-to-back holders, rarely got into their stride with the Bective midfield continuously blocking their attacking thrusts. Only in injury time did Clontarf finally manage to find a way through when centre Dara McElligott made a diagonal run into the corner. Richie Murphy sent over his fourth successful kick to put just six points between the two teams. But Bective had earned a place in their first floodlit final.

The two sides had met four days previously in the Leinster championship when Clontarf prevailed 2819 to finish unbeaten in their group. And in this second encounter they got off to the better start when Murphy kicked them ahead after five minutes.

Crucially, though, Bective took the lead just on the quarter hour with scrum-half Brad Free cutting through a gap to score under the posts. Out-half John Bresnihan converted and his kicking remained a feature of the game with a focused Bective pack carving out numerous penalty opportunities.

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By half-time they led 13-6 with Clontarf's 10-match unbeaten run in the competition, stretching back to 1997, now under serious threat. Bresnihan added three more penalties after the interval to cement Bective's lead.

Scorers: Bective: B Free try, J Bresnihan 5 penalties and conversion; Clontarf: D McElligott try, R Murphy 3 penalties and conversion.

Bective Rangers: B Cunningham; D Jackson, D Lyons, K Curle, T Sheehan; J Bresnihan, B Free; B Crowley, S Farrelly, P Kelly, J Bolger, B O'Connor, J Oliver, S Montgomery, P Hatton. Replacements: F Lennon for O'Connor (59 mins), R Hoyle for Kelly (72 mins), D Kearney for Bresnihan (89 mins).

Clontarf: D Rossi; R Noble, A Reddin, D McElligott, R Casey; R Murphy, R O'Reilly; W O'Kelly, B Jackman, T Kearns, B Traynor, C Power, D Moore, P Ward, C Brownlee. Replacements: D Murray for O Kelly (half-time), D Bewley for Rossi (70 mins), D Hyland for Jackman (65 mins).

Referee: T Redmond (ARLB).