Stillorgan RFC 0 - AIB 12
J4 League - Dec 9, 2006
Training has clearly paid off for the J4 massive.
Following some confusion about the kick off time for the match, which was relocated to Bird Avenue to accommodate the Leinster faithful, the Stillorgan J4s took to the field with a grim determination to prove to themselves (and others who post on Planet Rugby) that they can put in a good performance.
The game started out quite evenly matched, both sides doing well going forward and defending adequately.
The first ten minutes of each of the J4 games to date had proven to be the weakest period of play and this was adressed with AIB failing to get close to the goal line and rarely making it into the 22. SRFC going forward was a pleasure to watch. Good link play between forwards and backs, support was quick to come and Ross marshalled the troops well in this aspect. Some great mauls were followed by brilliant kicks upfield by Liam and Mark. Only some desperate defending by AIB prevented SRFC scoring first, or at all, for that matter!
AIB scored first putting over a well worked try at the 25 minute mark.
The men of the parish rallied back, quickly working their way up to the AIB five metre line only to be the victims of some poor calls, allowing AIB to get out of their own 22. Stillorgan definitely had the look of a team most likely to score.
At half-time there wasn't much to say to a team working well in all positions, Thomas was subbed off having nursed a knock to his shoulder picked up after about 10 minutes.
Early into the second half, another change in personnel meant that the front row took on a totally different look, Shane and Damien replaced by Kieth and Nigel. This meant there was a lot more crash-ball.
AIB did a great job of holding back the efforts of Stillorgan and a couple of missed penalty attempts kept them in front. Going forward, AIB had a well organised maul, but this was matched by superb efforts from all the forwards to a bring the maul to a halt.
After 20 scoreless minutes in the second half, our own discipline let us down and following a penalty being awarded someone decided to have words with the ref, who brought the penalty up to our five meter line from where they put it over the line with ease and left an easy conversion to bring the score to 12.
Again, the Stillorgan heads didn't go down and hard work again saw most of the play taking place in the AIB half of the pitch, alas with no success.
The game finished 12 - 0 to the visitors, but the J4s can take pride in a performance which displayed gutsy defence and great tackling, well organised forward play, particularly the line-out, patient build ups allowing the backs space to run and in particular collective responsibility for everything happening on the field, good or bad.
The one spillover from last week is some poor discipline. No amount of talking to a ref will ever make him change his mind, I can't for the life of me understand why anyone feels the need to speak to him. If you don't like something, take it to your captain. Fidel will then talk to the ref if needs be.
Special mentions go out today to Keaven, who can look forward to a visit from Santa as he'll definitely go on the "Nice" list. Superb runs and the ability to turn on a sixpence have shown him to be a player to watch in the future. Well done, young man! Donough had a great game at full back, soldiering on even after getting a kick on the elbow for his troubles, having dived on a ball. He has a great brain for rugby, seeming to know the perfect time to kick or run. In the pack, Bryan had great throw-ins, ably collected by Frank. The pack as a whole, once again, worked hard and fought for every inch.
All in all, a great display and one to take great heart from. Roll on January and a chance to build on the momentum achieved.
Finally, J4s, the lads from the J3s still have one game left to play next weekend. They've been there for us over the last few weeks in training, enabling us to do the work we had to do. This week, we repay the debt.
Match report by Michael Kirwan