Stillorgan 22-0 St. Mary\'s College
J3 League - Jan 11th, 2009
Wind, rain, mud and bonus points the order of the day in fortress bird avenue.
We had a very strong wind behind us in the first and it showed with only a few minutes on the clock. We got possession the corner and after a few pig balls, sucking in the defence, Tricky O Driscoll stepped his way to the line. Conversion missed in atrocious conditions. 5 - 0
Peter unfortunately had to go off with an ankle/knee injury with mark horse hartnett coming in for him. As the wind was going to play such an important part in the game we knew we had to put points on the board before half time. It was a \\\'up the jumper\\\' day and that\\\'s what we did but to their credit, Mary\\\'s defence held tough under immense pressure. We had 80% of possession and all in their 22 but we couldn\\\'t convert it into scores. Mary\\\'s didn\\\'t give away penalties and we just couldn\\\'t cross. As the Ref was being assessed and it wasn\\\'t an easy day to ref. He lost a lot of control and there was a lot of niggly stuff at the breakdown. We mouthed too much to the ref and a little of last season\\\'s frustration started to creep in. That sums up the rest of the half.
HT 5 - 0
We knew we had a big task ahead of us with the conditions going to be against us, fortunately the wind died down and we got the rub of the green. Unexpectedly we had most of the possession in the first 10 minutes and the game was played in the middle third. As the wind was not as big a factor as expected, shobbsy was able to get boot to ball and get good territory. Lineouts were working well with Marys missing their two 7foot jumpers. Overall we robbed alot of ball and secured most of our own ball. The scrums were a hugh platform and we were able to turn it which ever way we chose going over the gain line and had great defense against theirs. The front five putting in a great performance in the tight. Noel, don\\\'t bother showing up on Tuesday.
We got a real grip on the game with the set pieces as well as good patient build up getting us into scoring positions. This good work was repaid in a close in try from Pádraig. Timmy converting. 12 - 0
The tails were up now and the effort didn\\\'t drop. The game continued in the same vain as before and with shobbsy/timmy kicking well from the packs pick and go rugby shobbsy kicked a perfectly weighted ball under the posts a foot short of their line and we drove them over to get a 5 meter scrum. From a few phases Doddsy got over to dot down the third. 17 - 0
Ross and Donnacha came in looking very clean that soon changing. Mary\\\'s effort dropped. I managed to spice things up for our adoring fans with a little bit of handbags. with us camped in their 22 and knowing 1 more try would make a hugh difference to the table we gave it everything. Pick and go, pick and go, pick and go in the corner. I stepped out to the backs and when the ball was spun wide the backs managed to hold the ball regardless of their frozen hands and Mark stepped inside the cover with the last move of the match to get the invaluable bonus. The game ending 22 - 0.
An immense effort from all. Games start on Tuesday night and the commitment at training is reaping rewards on Sundays. Lets keep it up and bring on Barnhall in two weeks time.
Also, well done to the J4s who defeated millmount 10 - 7 on a very windy day on Saturday with Mad John & Colm O Diroscoll scoring making it a double for the driscolls this weekend.
Thanks to all coaches and subs who didn\\\'t get a game. Also the support is greatly appericated, especially on a day like Sunday. At the time of this publication goign to print Barhall defeated Trinity 13 - 0 while DLSPs result against Belvo unknown(they gave us a walkover before xmas)
See you all on Tuesday
Match report by Brian Shanahan