Dundalk U13’s travelled to Ashbourne on Sunday, where they mirrored their provincial team in Firhill ,in grinding out a very laboured victory. From the kick off, Dundalk set up camp inside the Ashbourne 22m ,setting up phase after phase, but could not break through the home team’s well drilled defence. The breakthrough came on 15 minutes when Dundalk knocked on, giving Ashbourne the put in to the scrum, 10m in front of their posts. Ashbourne tried to run the ball but their first receiver was driven backwards in a text book offensive tackle by outhalf, Michael McDonald spilling the ball where no 7, Aaron Duffy gathered and darted over the line to register the games first score. The score remained Ashbourne 0 – Dundalk 5 until the half time whistle.

In a reversal of the first half, Ashbourne came out the blocks fired up for battle. Retaining possession from their  kick off, their no 4 ran through four soft tackles to cross the line under the posts with the conversion added. With the wind in their sails, Ashbourne held Dundalk under the cosh for the next 15 minutes, but heroic defending prevailed. The siege was lifted with stolen ruck ball and inside centre, Karl McMenamin made a surging run bringing play to the Ashbourne 22m line. Quick recycled ball through the back line brought play to the opposite touchline, where Duffy picked and drove over in the corner for his second try.  McDonald had a very difficult kick into a stiff breeze but the ball bounced off the crossbar and just fell on the wrong side. Dundalk finished the stronger side but were content to walk away with a narrow victory in their first outing of 2012. Final score, Ashbourne 7 – Dundalk 10.

Charlie Donnelly, Tadgh Leahy, Andrew Dorian, Karl McMenamin,  Patrick Bermingham,  Michael McDonald, Ben Verling, Andrew McDonald, Aaron Duffy, Tarlach Campbell,  Eoin McMahon, Callum Murray, Frank Taaffe, Sam McSherry, Dean O’Connor,  Fergal Malone, Cian McGuinness, Aaron Rehill, Tiernan Duffy, Jack McGee, Conor McKeown