City of Derry book Junior Cup final at Kingspan after victory over Cooke

Junior Cup semi-final

City of Derry 32

Cooke 16

All roads point to Kingspan Stadium in Belfast for City of Derry after four second half tries saw them secure the club’s first Junior Cup final appearance in 14 years.

Richard McCarter was in the team on that day in January 2010, when Derry scored a late, late win over Armagh at Dubarry Park in Athlone, so he knows more than most just how rare these big days come around.

Now the Head Coach, McCarter watched on, going through all the emotions, as his team came from behind at half time to book their place in the final, a huge boost for everyone at Judges Road in what has been a difficult 2024 to date.

“It means the world to all of us to be honest,” McCarter said afterwards. “It has been a challenging few season to be fair, none more so than the last couple of months, but that’s really given us a massive boost now to get to a cup final at the Kingspan is something we can really look forward to. I want the boys to enjoy tonight now because cup finals don’t come around too often.”

Derry trailed by five points at the break, with the first half one of frustration, the home side seemingly unable to rise to the occasion that this most certainly was.

“It just took us a while to get going yeah,” McCarter acknowledged. “I actually thought defensively we were good but we just gave away too many silly penalties like we did last week. The attack looked a bit blunt, but in the second half, once we got our noses in front, it looked as if we had lifted a weight off our shoulders and we finished the game really strongly, and Cooke didn’t really trouble us to be honest and that’s what we thought might happen if we could just stick to our plan.”

The performance in each half was night and day, and whatever McCarter and his staff said to the players at half time worked, as they eventually began their fightback from eight points down, running in four scores which had no-one doubting, especially Cooke, that the better team won.

“Our highlights reel is always fairly impressive,” McCarter said. “We score a lot of nice tries and today was the same, but I was actually really impressed with our build up play today. Last week we gave it away and coughed it up after a couple of phases whereas we scored the tries this week because we were able to retain the ball. When you players like Killene and Davy Graham, Lapsley and Loguie in your back line, you’re going to threaten any team.”

Season-defining

With just two league games remaining, and third place now beyond them, this game was Derry’s season in a nutshell, an all or nothing scenario with McCarter making no secret of his desire to reach a final since last autumn.

The first ten minutes saw penalties exchanged at both ends as the teams tried to set the pace early on, Andrew McMurray missing one and scoring one either side of Alex McDonnell’s successful kick. After a period of pressure from Cooke, a yellow card to Jamie Millar saw Derry reduced in numbers much to McCarter’s frustration, but the coach was much happier when his team picked up their first score on 23 minutes. A high punt forward saw the ball slip through James Brennan’s grasp and it was picked up by Davy Graham who ran clear to score and put his team 8-3 ahead.

That was as good as it got for Derry in a disjointed first half, McMurray successful with another penalty before Cooke scored their only try of the day on the half hour. It was an especially frustrating moment for McCarter who watched his team give up a scoring opportunity at one end only to concede at the other. Making it worse was the controversial nature of Brennan’s try, who seemed to just take possession without the ball being released from the tackle; Derry players stopped momentarily half expecting the referee’s whistle to blow but by the time they realised it wasn’t coming, there was no catching the Cooke man, and the visitors went in one step closer to a Junior final as a result.

Half Time 8-13

McMurray added noter penalty to increase the deficit to eight points early in the second half, but, knowing the next score in this game was huge, Derry finally roused themselves to begin a stirring fightback. The comeback began with Fearghus Canning going over after good Derry pressure and that changed the momentum of the game entirely.

All of a sudden it was the home side looking sharper and more dangerous, and come the hour mark they broke through to reclaim the lead, a magnificent no-look pass from Killene Thorton into Simon Logue, who was never going to be caught, and Derry ow held a 20-16 lead.

McMurray tried an ambitious long-range penalty to reduce the lead, but was way off target and Derry then put clear daylight between the two teams with their fourth try. The importance of the score was not lost on anyone, with a huge cheer going up around Judges Road, and it was another flash of inspiration which crumbled Cooke, McDonnell’s dummy leading to space for Thorton to run through and make it 27-16.

Cooke’s attempt at a fightback was half-hearted as even they could see that this game had slipped away from them, and the result was no longer in doubt when the fifth and final try came just three minutes from time. From a Derry line-out, David Lapsley burst forward into space and found Logue, always available, always willing, and he raced over the line for his second try of the day.

For Logue, McCarter and everyone in green and black in their veins, this victory meant everything with that day at Kingspan just reward for what has been a difficult few years at Judges Road.

Teams

City of Derry: Killene Thorton, Jack Beattie, David Graham, David Lapsley, Simon Logue, Alex McDonnell, Jamie Millar, Fearghus Canning, Cathal Cregan, Sam Duffy, Cein McColgan, Gerard Doherty, Ryan Higgins, Jake McDevitt, Tiarnan Dillon.

Cooke: Andrew McMurray, Connor Philips, John Loughlin, Kyle Mitchell, James Brennan, Andrew Hanna, Oliver McKibbin, Ethan Sloan, Tom Donnan, Jonny McClune, Callum Foreman, Rhodri Phillips, Rhys Phillips, Jason Lyons, Darius Kittle.