Stillorgan 20 - 0 Suttonians
J3 League - Nov 16th, 2008
This was our third top of the table clash in as many weeks. We had our suspicions about Suttonians J3 team as their results did not reflect the poor form from last year. It had been mentions in the club that there j2 s were now playing j3 so we were unsure about what to expect from them. They showed up early with all the gear, physio etc and we were getting the feeling that this was going to be a tough match.
The game started with them kicking to us. We secured the ball then I knocked it on. Scrum, followed by a bit of tennis between our backs and there\'s. Then they let there forwards take it to us. We were defending well and playing a tight game, they were not making any real ground. Not really too sure what happened but the ref was blowing stupid things and missing genuine infringements. We got a penalty and Shane O\'Brien, (a man who should be kicking ball) kicked excellently to the corner. We secured the lineout, set up a maul and which ended in a ruck. We made a couple attempts at the line followed by Tricky punching through. Great work from the veteran. Timmy missed the tough angled conversion. 5-0 The game restarted and it was pretty much the same story again with them giving away various penalties and we ending up on their line again, there was a few knock on\'s and then we ended up with a lineout. After the same sequence of events Tricky punched through again for his second this time under the posts which Timmy duly converted. 12-0 Pretty much the rest of the first half consisted of Suttonians under pressure and Stillorgan nearly scoring but denied by some small handling errors. That said some of the knock on\'s went back but the ref saw it a different way. In general our discipline was good with little back chat. This is something that as a team we have really developed and it will inevitably work to our advantage as we progress.
Second half was same story again *Suttonians under pressure*. Some time into to the half they gave away a kickable penalty, which Timmy popped over the posts 15-0. We were playing up the hill and we had the ball for most of the half. Suttonians forwards did have a bit of a good spell with repeated phases, where they made good ground, but we were patience and organised our defence well. We eventually got the ball back. The less said about my defensive kick the better. The final try was resulted in good work from the backs. Keavan made a one of his trademark runs down the wing making plenty of ground. I\'m not sure what happened, I think there was a pass followed by a kick which Donnacha who had just come on for Ross, chased down and scored the lucky bollocks 20-0.
All in all good performance from the team, we really did pile on the pressure and kept a clean sheet at home. The pitch was in shit which could have caused some of the small handling errors. Suttonians were not great. They had big lads in there pack but made no real impact on the game.
That\'s the result; I\'ll leave it to the coaches to be critical. We are now deservedly top of the table. Let\'s keep it that way for the rest of the league.
Yours in rugby
Match report by Alan Fortune