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Boston’s future Major League Rugby franchise kicked off the Cara Cup on Saturday as the New England Free Jacks hosted Connacht Eagles at Union Point Sports Complex. An impressive crowd were treated to an entertaining match that saw the visitos come away convincing 38-7 winners.
The first try came with New England on the attack, a loose pass from Tadhg Leader finding Sean O’Brien instead of its intended target. O’Brien raced in from 70 meters to touch down under the posts.
New England were competitive elsewhere but stuck in reverse gear all afternoon in the scrum. The set piece conceded the second try, a simple score for Neal Moylett after the pushover attempt had wheeled to the right.
A turnover was the culprit early in the second half. Erik Thompson took a quick tap but it was ripped away at the breakdown and Stephen Kerins took the ball down the sideline inside the Free Jacks 22. The pressure stayed on until the New England defense was spread thin and Hugh Lane had a simple finish in space. Luke Carty curled the ball masterfully into a stiff breeze to make the score 19-0 for Connacht.
Points finally came for the Free Jacks when the Eagles were pinged for illegal scrummaging. The lineout was secured by Owen Hundt and Peter Lupton showed his experience, selling a dummy and stepping inside his opposite with Carty’s shoelace tackle attempt not enough to stop Welshman from reaching the line. Leader’s routine conversion reduced the gap to 12 but that’s as close as New England would get before full-time.
Tony Purpura was sent to the bin for repeat scrum collapses and Connact made quick work of the man advantage, with Mark Balaski going over in the left corner a minute later. Lane showed a touch of class down the right side with a perfectly weighted chip kick that gave Colm de Buitlear a clear run-in. Ireland international Robin Copeland powered through for the sixth try to close out the game.
Connacht will play against Ulster Ravens on Wednesday evening in the second match of the Cara Cup. New England’s next contest will be against Ulster next Sunday.
SCORING
NEW ENGLAND 7
Tries – P. Lupton (53′)
Cons – T. Leader 1/1 (54′)
Yellow cards – T. Purpura (64′)
CONNACHT 38
Tries – S. O’Brien (17’), N. Moylett (23’), H. Lane (47′), M. Balaski (65′), C. de Buitlear (69′), R. Copeland (73′)
Cons – L. Carty 2/5 (18’, 48′), C. Dean 2/2 (31′, 74′)
TEAMS
NEW ENGLAND FREE JACKS
1 Tony Purpura, 2 Steven Hinshaw, 3 Dolph Botha, 4 Jackson Thiebes, 5 Conor Kindregan, 6 Owen Hundt, 7 Jon Kokinda, 8 Pago Haini, 9 Erik Thompson, 10 Tadhg Leader (capt.), 11 Stephen Dazzo, 12 Peter Lupton, 13 Ahmad Harajly, 14 Christian Adams, 15 Danny Collins
Replacements: 16 Dave McKenna, 17 Diego Maquieira, 18 Kyle Ciquera, 19 Aaron Cummings, 20 Devin Ibanez, 21 Oliver Engelhart, 22 Owen Collins, 23 Peceli Rinakama
CONNACHT EAGLES
1 Conan O’Donnell, 2 Jonny Murphy, 3 Conor Kenny, 4 Joe Maksymiw (capt.), 5 Cillian Gallagher, 6 Cian Huxford, 7 Sean Masterson, 8 Neal Moylett, 9 Stephen Kerins, 10 Luke Carty, 11 Mark Balaski, 12 Kieran Joyce, 13 Sean O’Brien, 14 Hugh Lane, 15 Colm de Buitlear
Replacements: 16 Declan Adamson, 17 Jordan Duggan, 18 Peter Claffey, 19 James Connolly, 20 Robin Copeland, 21 James Mitchell, 22 Conor Dean, 23 Corey Reid
