Saturday’s McCrea Cup Semi Final, between Cooke and Belfast Harlequins, at Shaw’s Bridge, was a decidedly one sided affair.

Cooke kicked off and immediately went on the offensive. After 8 minutes of pressure Harlequins conceded a penalty try.

Report and images courtesy of  Bob Given Photography

Barely a minute later Jason Lyons scored an unconverted try. Cooke’s pressure was relentless and it was no surprise when they went 19 – 0 up in 14 minutes, with another Lyons try, converted by Ryan Flavell.

Harlequins found a little territory and possession, but were repulsed by a strong Cooke defence. More Cooke pressure yielded a Flavell penalty goal on 26 minutes and the 1st half scoring was completed by a Jonathan Bachus unconverted try. Cooke lead 27 – 0 at half time.

Like the 1st half Cooke’s early 2nd half pressure yielded 3 tries, in the first 10 minutes, from Andrew Nelson, Ethan Sloan and Flavell, all converted by Flavell to lead 48 – 0.

Scoring took a lull for 10 minutes, as Cooke looked for more scores, the Harlequins defence held firm.

On 20 minutes a Flavell try and conversion increased the lead, before Jackson Milligan scored an unconverted try in the corner 5 minutes later. Barely a minute later Kyle Mitchell scored under the posts. Flavell added the points to complete the scoring.

Mercifully the referee blew for full time. Cooke will be delighted with their very comprehensive victory and can look forward to another Kingspan final.

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