Stillorgan 32 - Unidare 10
J3 Friendly - Sep 19, 2004
The season started off brightly for Stillorgan with an emphatic victory at Bird Avenue yesterday over Unidare. Weather conditions were perfect - if you wanted to fly a kite - and Stillorgan found themselves playing into Hurricane Ivan for the first half. Consistent good running from both forwards and backs in the first 20 minutes kept Unidare in their own half and under severe pressurere resulting in two penalties that new summer signing Stephen duely dispatched. Soon after came the the highlight of the match when once again after some good interchange play between backs and forwards, el Mexicano Fidel scattered over the line from 22m out to score his first ever try. Cue the wild celebrations. Another penalty from Stephen along with a Unidare drop goal left the half-time score 16-3 in favour of Stillorgan.
Despite making 7 or 8 substitutions at half time, Stillorgan started the second half as they finished the first. Not long into the half, an intelligent kick to the right hand corner and this reporters only positive contribution in a brutal performance set our second Mexicano up for an easy try in the corner. We're not sure but we're confident that this is the first time in Irish rugby history that two Mexicans have scored tries in the one game for an Irish team. Bien hecho mis amigos! Two more tries followed, one scored by new scrum-half Ken, the other by new centre Garret playing in the unfamilar position of openside flanker for the remaining 20 minutes - total rugby is alive and well in Bird Avenue. In between those tries we had the Krusty the Clown moment of the day when nifty little winger Ross, along with a few Campese style skipsteps, showed unbelievable pace for a man of his ability to burn off four or five defenders and cross the line for what would have been the try of the game had he managed to touch the ball down instead of show boating for the 7 spectators and dropping the ball with no one near him. Unidare kept going until the end and scored a try after the Stillorgan team went to sleep en masse from a quick penalty tap.
Good performances all round but man of the match was the marauding French man Fabien who made an immediate impact in his comeback game for Stillorgan.