Cork Admirals6-0 Dublin Rebels

In 2007 the Admirals and Rebels played two close games, each winning one game by two points. Both teams expected another close battle and the game materialised into just that.

The Rebels played with the wind in the first quarter and a nice Paul Grogan kickoff sent the Admirals deep in their own territory. The home side defense played well in the first quarter, preventing the Admirals from gaining a first down on three consecutive possessions, with Ross McCooey and Steve Walsh playing some excellent run defense. The Admirals' defense matched the intensity of the home sides' and prevented the Rebels from scoring despite being given poor field position by the offense early in the game. Marcus Gates, Danny Deinert, Martin Mulrey and Willy O'Brien played well in the Admirals front seven.

With the change of ends at quarter the Admirals offense managed to help out their defense by gaining a couple of first downs in a better offensive series, one each through Alain Pezeron and Keith O'Callaghan. Despite this the Rebels defense held strong and stuffed the Admirals attack, preventing the score. At halftime the score was still tied at zero.

The Admirals played with the wind in the third quarter but the Rebels offense put together their best drive of the day. Sam Hodgins had some nice runs, reading his blocks well. A stop by the Admirals defense forced the Rebels to punt. In the most bizarre event of the day Marcus Gates partially blocked the rebels punt, but it was caught beyond the line of scrimmage by the Rebels Marcus Naylor who managed to pick up the first down yardage and keep the offensive series alive. Cork's Peter Lucey managed to end this promising offensive drive with a diving interception. On the next series David Lomasney threw deep to Matteo Spada who scored on a 70yard catch and run effort.

A penalty for excessive celebration meant the Admirals conversion attempt failed. This exact scenario occurred in last years semi-final game when the Rebels took the lead, so both teams were well aware that a single score could yet win the game for either side.

Now in the fourth quarter the Rebels put together a nice drive, to build some momentum and again reached Admirals territory. An Andy Hempel interception of a tipped ball swung the momentum back in the visitors' favour for now. With little time left on the clock the Admirals offense did not manage to make first down yardage. After the punt the Rebels had
just over one minute remains to move 70 yards to score. Andrew Dennehy directed and effective drive that used the sideline well to stop the clock. Sam Hodgins picked up some good yardage on screen passes while Barry Flinn caught three passes on the sideline to stop the clock. With three seconds to go Dennehy connected with Barry Flinn just shy of the Cork goal line. However a defensive penalty gave the Rebels one last try from twenty-five yard line. A nice pass to the corner of the endzone to Barry Flinn was barely tipped by Peter Lucey and Andy Hempel to preserve the 6-0 lead for the visitors.