An Rinn's Noel Ó Murchadha dispossesses Gaultier's Diarmuid Smyth during their controversial Waterford SFC game at Stradbally.  | Photo: Michael Kiely

An Rinn's Noel Ó Murchadha dispossesses Gaultier's Diarmuid Smyth during their controversial Waterford SFC game at Stradbally. | Photo: Michael Kiely

An Rinn 2-8;   Gaultier 0-13

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An Rinn booked their place in the quarter-finals of the county senior football championship with a narrow victory over Gaultier in Stradbally last Friday evening. Gaultier now go into a play-off for a place in the quarter-finals. However, that was only half the story from a controversial game which left both sets of supporters talking about the standard of refereeing.

For the second week in a row referee John-Michael Kelly sent off three players. This started off as a great game but it was not to be, as the constant interruptions to the play eventually caused both sets of players to become frustrated. In total, Kelly issued eleven yellow cards and three red cards in a game without a dirty tackle in it until the very end.

In between the stoppages there was some lovely football played by both sides as they scrapped it out for the automatic quarter-final place.

In the opening quarter, Gaultier dominated the play but could not make their superiority tell on the scoreboard. They did lead by 0-3 to 0-2 after fifteen minutes with JJ Hutchinson converting two frees and Willie Walsh scoring from a placed ball as well. Interestingly, when An Rinn equalised with a Billy Breathnach free in the sixteenth minute, it meant that all three of An Rinn’s scores had come from frees that were moved in for dissent.

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