Monkstown 6 - Stillorgan 8
J3 League - Nov 05, 2006
We played the first half into the wind which Monkstown used pretty well keeping us pinned in our half. We lost Richie just before the game so our lineout had to rejigged. Monkstown were all over us in the first half which them Dominating the lineout which was a mess. They had a number of 5m lineouts but great defense from the forwards held them out each time.
Our discipline in the first half was very poor as we gave away alot of silly penalties and were constantly argueing with what was a very poor Ref. Our defense was average in the first 20 mins with a few missed tackles but luckily they did not score. The one time we did get out to the backs in their 22 we nearly scored in the corner but they managed to just push Carlos's foot into touch. They missed one kick virtually in front of the posts but got another one later on to be leading 3-0 at halftime.
Second half our aim was to play it in their half using the wind. Initially it worked well as in the first few minutes we put them under pressure and got rewarded a penalty which Mark our new outhalf slotted to bring the score to 3-3. Then the game took on its familar role with us camped in our own half, taking the ball into contact up front and most of the time getting turned over. It was very infuriating hopefully something we will learn from. Monkstown seemed to be camped in our half with a large number of 5m lineouts which good defence again stopped them scoring. They only got a Penalty kick to go 6-3 ahead.
Then we got some ball and Mark did a nice garryowen which caused alot of confusion in their ranks, we nearly scored from it and ended up with a Penalty 10ms out. Carlos decided to go for the lineout. From this lineout the forwards worked a great rolling maul with Shane (flanker) scoring from. We missed the conversion to lead 8-6 which we managed to hold onto to win. Given we probally only had 20% possesion and our outhalf touched the ball 5/6 times it was a great win.
Positives Defence after first 20 mins it was excellent Rolling maul when we won a lineout. Spirit not to let them in.
Things that need to be worked on Lineouts, Ball protection, Rucking, Discipline.
Match report by Garrett Fanning