Stillorgan 24 - Bective Rangers 10
J3 League - Feb 05, 2006
A good win to get us back in track in this league. After a lot of
confusion at the beginning with the Leinster Branch changing the
starting time to 3pm without informing us and the ref not showing up
till 2.40pm so not sure if game was going to go ahead we finally
started at 3pm. We lost the toss and played the first half down the
hill. We got off to a slow start with Bective having the most of the
early play nearly scoring up the right but good defence held them out.
They were in our half for a lot of the first 15 minutes and a lot of it
had
to do with our pure Stupidity. After talking before the match about not
giving away penalties for going over the top/hands in the ruck, we have
at least 6 penalties in the 1st 20 minutes for that- once/twice maybe is
excusable but 6 times is just stupid- against a team with a decent
kicker we could be 15 points down. Players need to use their heads and
LEAVE THEM have the ball if we are not going to win it and trust our
defence which is very GOOD. Lets make them earn their points not give
them to them on a plate.
First time we got into their half the forwards turned over a great
ball- richie took the ball, passed before tackle to griff who passed
out of the tackle to Garrett who made a half break just stopped on the
line to pass to Eoin to score on the left hand side. Conversion was
missed to make the score 5-0. We spent most of the rest of the half in
their half which led to a couple of penalties which Stephen slotted
over to make the score 11-0 at halftime.
Second Half - Bective started strong playing down the hill - they put
pressure on us to earn a penalty to make the score 11-3. Then forwards
went into overdrive with some great mauling and running. They had one
Maul that they went 40yds up the pitch. Donnacha was taking the ball up
well and Nigel the Man mountain like a train was gathering speed and
knocking defenders down like Dominos. Rucking was much better in the
second half too. One quick bit of thinking by Stephen and Hops from a
kick-off put Bective under a lot of pressure 5m from their line. We
pressurised them but eventually gave away a penalty. Some more great
work from the forwards on the left from a penalty ended up in Nigel's
hands 5m from the line. Nigel who is nearly unstoppable from this
distance bulldozed over for a try in the corner to make it 16-3.
We were playing much better now and we got another penalty which
Stephen knocked over to make it 19-3.
Now the bit you have all been waiting for!!! From a ruck ball went to
Hops (who played very well for a man with little sleep) who tried to
kick it ahead but got half blocked, ball bounced ala Barry Murphy into
Garrett hands on the half way, he stepped left then right leaving
defenders in his wake - he called a switch with Fergus only to Dummy
him leave the winger and fullback standing still to run in to corner to
make it 24-3. Bective then back us to put alit of pressure on us in
our 22 got in for a try when their outhalf slipped through to make it
24-10. They came straight back down the field and spent most of the
rest of the game in our 22. They nearly scored in the right hand corner
but for a great all be it high tackle by Milky in the corner. From the
resultant Penalty they had a huge overlap on the left they did a cross
field kick to their 4 on Donnacha but a fantastic smothering tackle by
Donnacha saved the day. We held them out to win 24-10.
Good win given lots of new faces as well.
Match report by Garrett Fanning