News article – Style E 2753

Ironically perhaps, the two players who really stood out in the pre Summer tour game last Friday (May 23rd) night in Thomond Park, Gavin Duffy and Mike Mullins are not included in the tour squad. The game ended in a 50-26 win for the Alan Gaffney coached Colours side who scored eight tries – three of those by Duffy – with Ronan O’Gara landing five conversions.

But it was Mullins who possibly made as big an impression as the hat-trick hero. He posed a constant threat to the Whites defence, scored a second half try and received the biggest ovation of the evening when he was replaced in the dying minutes.

The Whites opened the scoring with a try from Kieron Dawson after five minutes but trailed 19-5 at the interval and they needed a piece of individual brilliance from Tyrone Howe on two occasions in the second half to save themselves from a bigger defeat..

Colours. P Wallace (try); J Topping, G Duffy (three tries), M Mullins (try), A Horgan; R O’Gara (five cons), B O’Meara; J Fitzpatrick, S Byrne, S Best, L Cullen, M O’Kelly, A Quinlan, K Gleeson (try), V Costello (try).
Replacements: M Lawlor (try) for Horgan, M Horan for Fitzpatrick, D O’Callaghan for O’Kelly, J Fogarty for Byrne, D Leamy for Gleeson, B Cunningham for Lawlor.

Whites. G Dempsey; T Robinson, J Kelly, D Quinlan, T Howe (two tries); M McHugh, E Reddan; R Corrigan, P Shields, E Byrne, G Longwell, P O’Connell, D Wallace, K Dawson (try), E Millar. Replacements: K Campbell (try) for Reddan, M Cahill for Corrigan, B Jackman for Shields, T Hogan for Longwell, B Everitt (three cons) for Dempsey.

Referee – David McHugh.