Corinthians Climb To The Summit

Corinthians moved to the top of the AIB League Division Three table with an excellent 31-3 victory over their Galway rivals Connemara at Corinthian Park last Saturday. Having won six of their opening seven league games, Corinthians head into the Christmas break with a three-point lead at the summit.

Saturday’s win was particularly satisfying as tries from Tadhg Linnane, Darren Classens (2) and Dave Murphy saw the bonus point chalked up just after half-time.

Corinthians coach Leon Jordan said: “The lads really deserved it. The big thing was that we kept our composure and we always believed in ourselves.

“We said a few weeks ago that there was just a few things we needed to work on and if we click and get it right, we were bound to hurt one or two teams.

“The lads really stuck to their guns and they got over a few setbacks earlier in the week.

“We had a very simple and basic game-plan, a lot of it was based on territory, we played the territory game very well. All credit to the lads, they were really, really good.”

The South African, who is in his second season with the club, said that the mental approach to the game is something he has worked on with the players.

“You can be as skilful and talented as you want, but if your mind is not in the right place your heart’s not going to follow,” he added.

“It showed out there (on the pitch), there was a lot of heart. We did a bit of work on mental toughness and that’s important.

“You have to be able to absorb what’s being thrown at you but if you see the man next to you sticking it out, that makes it easier for yourself.”

At the midpoint of the season and despite their table-topping form, Corinthians will not be losing the run of themselves as they face into January games against Midleton, Suttonians and recent leaders Portadown.

With that tough schedule in mind, Jordan insisted: “We’re halfway through the season and we will only take it game by game. We won’t get ahead of ourselves.

“I suppose (promotion) is in the back of our minds but you don’t want to lose focus. There’s long term goals and there’s shorter term goals in the interim and you want to make sure you hit your short term goals first.”