Galway's rugby league champions Tribesmen roll on unbeaten so far this year, and now face Dublin City Exiles on Saturday at South Park (The Swamp ) at 2pm.
The Tribesmen defeated the Exiles in the ROI semi-final last year ensuring a mouth-watering challenge as the visitors will be looking for revenge.
However the Tribesmen will be confident after their weekend victory over the Cork Bulls in their third game of the ROI Rugby League Championship. The Galway side pulled away after half-time for a 52-28 win at Cork PBC grounds.
It had been considerably closer at the break when the Tribesmen held a slender 22-18 lead. Although the visitors struck as early as the third minute through prop forward Enda Stanford, and doubled their lead through captain James Kennedy for a 12-0 lead, the home side refused to roll over.
They hit back with two tries to narrow the gap before the Galway outfit regained their composure and a break by full back Johnny Long resulted in his first try of the day, stretching to 18-8with scrumhalf Conor Loughrey once again adding the conversion.
Both teams registered another score before the break with Kennedy scoring his second try of the day for the Tribesmen to leave just four between the sides at half-time.
However the Tribesmen took the game to their opponents early in the second half and never let up. Loughrey registered a brace of tries in quick succession, followed by a third for Kennedy, extending the lead to 38-18. And they continued their dominance when Stanford crossed the line for his second try on 60 minutes. Although Loughrey was forced off following an an elbow to the head, the Tribesmen picked up where they had left off. Johnny Long registered his second try, converted by Paul Power. The Bulls produced a late flourish, but the game was rounded off by a score from Tribesman Sean O’Gorman to seal a comfortable winners for the title-holders.
