City of Derry blitz Randalstown to make Towns' Cup quarter-finals

City of Derry 59, Randalstown 10

City of Derry breezed through to a Bank of Ireland Towns' Cup quarter-final meeting with Ballymena IIs after a comfortable, nine try victory over Championship Two Randalstown at Judges Road on Saturday.

Richard McCarter's high flying 'Green and Black' went into the game as strong favourites to progress and fully justified their pre-match billing with a dominant display that had the tie won long before the final whistle.

The Co. Antrim men came into the game sitting second in Ulster rugby's second tier, only five points behind Championship Two leaders Lurgan and with a game in hand, but if they needed an illustration of the step up in class promotion would represent, Derry provided it with an excellent display of hard running rugby.

Indeed the home side served early warning of their intentions with three tries in the opening 16 minutes and Randalstown never looked liked recovering from the early blitz. The first arrived inside four minutes when a good break down the right saw one of Derry's players of the season, Killene Thornton, break a last ditch covering tackle to open the home account. The try was duly converted by the ever dependable Alex McDonnell and Derry were off and running at 7-0.

Randalstown responded with a penalty from their most dangerous player on the day, centre Mark Adamson, but his kick only stalled two more Derry tries. First up was McDonnell, showing sublime footwork to dance inside the visitors' cover for a try he converted himself before scrum-half Jamie Millar showed anything his out-half could do, he could do better with a similarly slaloming run though the Randalstown defence to leave it 21-3.

There was a brief glimmer of hope for the visitors on 22 minutes when Adamson gathered a difficult bouncing ball to take advantage of a rather open Derry backline and score Randalstown's solitary try of the day, a try he converted himself for 21-10; but from there it was one way traffic.

By half-time tries from Stephen Corr and David Lapsely, the latter after hooker Cathal Cregan showed the footwork and offloading skills of a centre, left Derry in complete control at 35-10 and with one foot already in the last eight.

Indeed any doubt that remained was banished by further tries from Gary McKinley, after a brilliant break by Ian Bratton who then scored himself following a superb Thornton break. Next Thornton crossed after a blistering show of pace by Colm Cregan down Derry's left flank and finally Millar grabbed his second to round off the scoring. It wasn't perfect but it was another impressive display for a Derry team who face a second cup tie in seven days next Saturday with the Junior Cup visit of Cooke to Judges Road.

City of Derry: Fearghus Canning, Cathal Cregan, Adam Marley, Gerard Doherty, Gary McKinley, Aaron Deery, Jake McDevitt, Stephen Corr, Jamie Millar, Alex McDonnell, Ross McLaughlin, David Lapsley, David Graham, Ian Bratton, Killene Thornton. (Replacements) Sam Duffy, Cein McColgan, Colm Cregan.

Randalstown: Rob Mawhinney, Scott Stevenson, Jack Francis, Fergal McConnan, Ryan O'Dea, Jamie Orr, Conor Murray, Eoin McDonald, Oran Gilbert, Eoin Letters, Phil McLean, Mark Adamson, Chris Donnelly, Kevin McCann, Matthew Adair. (Replacements) Curtis Gray, Johnny Fullerton, Seamus Letters.

Referee: Keane Davidson