Terenure 22 - Stillorgan 13
J3 League - Jan 28, 2007
Here is the Terenure report below. Nope no friendlies yet have been playing league games hopefully have some soon!!
Well what can I say I still don't know how we managed to lose this one!! First thing that has to be said is that the J3's is not just about the starting 15 but the whole matchday squad. On Friday we had a squad of 21 players with johnny being doubtful, Johnny let me know friday not available, Bull also let me know he was not available but we still had enough cover. Then on Sunday morning 3 players rang to say they were not available one only an hour before we were supposed to meet up- this is not acceptable as it Lets the whole squad down and does not give us adequate time to find a replacement. If you feel you are not going to be available we need to know on the Friday before the game so we can find some adequate cover. This meant we had only one Sub Donnacha to cover the whole team on Sunday!!!
Anyway back to the match. We kicked off to terenure who started really well they took it through the phases and got into our 22. They had 10 straight phases inside our 22 but fantastic defence by the whole team kept them out till we finally got a penalty to clear our lines. Eddie kicked us out of trouble after some great work by the forwards we got a penalty just inside the halfway, Eddie got a great kick to bring the score to 3-0. They again put alot of pressure on us but our defence was excellent, no way through the forwards or backs. Forwards were taking the ball on well with Shane, dave brady being very prominent. We got down into their half again got a penalty kick which Eddie converted to make the score 6-0.
Then a couple of minutes later we got a penalty near the touchline which Eddie went up, he got under the ball, their flanker caught it and garrett tackled him as soon as he got the ball, their scrumhalf tried to clear it but it hit Garretts chest who picked it up to score beside the posts eddie converted 13-0. From here on in we put alot of pressure on their line, one great maul from the Forwards should have been a try, ref who had no real control of the match looked like he had given it, tenerure lads shouted at him and he bottled it and gave us a 5m scrum which nothing came from. We went into halftime comfortably ahead 13-0 in control.
Then I don't know what happened at halftime shane had to go off with a sore back to be replaced by Donnacha, This meant we had no more subs to come on. They brought on a few subs too one centre who was a 1st team player just back from injury!!. Second half kicked off and we were under pressure again they were running it from anywhere, we were not coming up in a line to make our tackles, I remember one kick ahead only 1 chaser he went around him and then had 20ms free run!! They scored an early try when there scrumhalf got through some weak tackling at the side of a ruck which was converted to make it 13-7.
From here on in we under pressure, finn made a couple of halfbreaks which we did not convert. They were running things from everywhere but players were not fanning across the pitch in defence leaving huge overlaps at times. They scored from one of these overlaps to make the score 13-12 as it was not converted. They were also kicking the ball well while our kick returns were very poor either straight out or a couple of metres ahead. Players need to be aware of what is going on around them for example there were a number of times a back 3 player would kick ahead but no one would step into the space left by him so when they kicked down the pitch there was no one there!! They got another penalty to go 15-13 up. We were not out of this game- we had a penalty kick but just missed.
Some Players seemed to be out on their feet as once a Castleknock ball was called and there were no players there for the second phase!! There was still nothing between us, garrett intercepted a ball but was quickly swallowed up, went to ground to place the ball to get rucked over, next thing looked up to them running down the wing to score a try which they converted to leave the score 22-13. Game finished 22-13 so we managed to blow a 13 point lead and not even get a bonus point!!!
Positives- Our first half performance, it was excellent our defence was very good and everytime we got in their 22 we got points. We lost our first few lineouts but that got better as the game went on. Mauling was good and defence of their rolling maul was excellent too.
Areas for improvement- Fitness some players looked out on their feet with 20 mins to go - players need to train in order to get their fitness up!! With some players losing confidence as well we did not any subs to give them a breather. Kicking from hand - some players really need to work on their kicking from hand as not for the first time when it came to a kicking game to the back we were either kicking it straight out or a few yards. Rucking - in the second half at times our rucking was poor and this led to turnovers I think this has also got to do with players not been fit enough.
Match report by Garrett Fanning