Dundalk 10 - Stillorgan 26
J3 League - Nov 20, 2005
A much improved performance on last week with everyone showing up and on time. Maybe we should play all our matches away as it seems to be the only time people show up on time :-) We Dominated the first 20 mins without getting a score with some great forward work and much improved rucking. The lineout was also an improvement a bit messy at times for both sides.
We had a very international back 5 made up on one Spainard, 2 Mexicans, a Pole
and a sole Irish player (me). Our first try came after about 20 mins of
pressure, the ball was swept across the backline from right to left and then
Carlos showed his strenght to score in the corner for our first try.
Stephen made a big difference at outhalf as we had all the Backs in their proper
positions and he varied his game nicely with some good kicking and passing.
Maircin made a very good debut at fullback with sure handling and some good
running. Our 3 mexicans all played a part, now if Caesar could just pin
his ears back when he got the ball he could have had a couple of tries.
Stephen then latched on a penalty to make the score 8-0. He then followed this
up with a lovely kick to the right corner, he blocked their clearance kick and
was held back when going for the touchdown, the ref gave us a penalty try which
was converted to make it 15-0.
Then came out worst period when Dundalk put alot of pressure on our line and we
had some very poor tackling with people not taking the man with the ball - this
is an area we needed to step up. Dundalk got over the line but the ref did not
award the try even though it did look like a legitimate try and we were let off
the hook. They did make up for it with scoring a try just before Halftime from a
rolling maul. This left the score at halftime 15-7.
Second half we got off to a poor start with one of the moment of the match when
Donnacha going back to his GAA roots who was in 2 minds kicked the ball 6yds to
Octo (i think) instead of passing- ref gave us them a penalty for our player
been ahead of the kicker!! This made the score 15-10. From this
point on we improved immensely in all aspects of our game with the forwards
winning some good ball at lineouts and holding their own in the scrum.
They finally got to grips with the Dundalk Number 8 who was their main threat.
We got 2 more penalties which Stephen slotted over and Carlos got his second try
from a blocked kick. Johnny had a perfect try disallowed - guess ref was making
up for his earlier error.
Moment of the match was when Eoin took a quick penalty broke clear with the line
at his mercy showed some Agoraphobic (fear of open spaces) tendancies stepped
left to run into their only defender - he must have been getting tired. Overall
a much better performance from last week and now lets build
on it for next week which is a home match against Skerries.
Match report by Garrett Fanning