Greystones 22 - Stillorgan 7
J3 League - Feb 11, 2007
With a strong pack and a new look back line Stillorgan J3 took on the league leaders in their own back yard. Stillorgan started the game with the kick off with Shane H quick off the mark and putting in the games first good hit on the Greystones ball catcher. the pack followed up this hit with good rucking and managed a turn over at the next ruck. We put a few phases together and spent the 1st 7 mins of the game between the Greystones 10 meter and 22 meter line. No score came from this pressure.
When Greystones did get the ball they made good use of it by a fer well worked and rehearsed moves in the back line. They kicked in behind us as the saw the legend Danny Shanahan loitering at full back. Danny fielded the ball well but when he tried his usual side step we all feared what was coming next. and not to disappoint he hoofed the ball across the pitch straight into the Greystones wingers hands who has a clear run in to the line except for a superb tackle from marcin who was back to his best fore this game. Unfortunately from the resulting ruck the Stones full back crossed the line for the 1st score of the match.
A score line of 7- 0 Greystones did not reflect the game at this point. Greystones then got a penalty 5 yards out and decided to take the 3 points which was a compliment to the Stillorgan standard of play. 10 - 0 Greystones. Again from the restart Shane H made a big hit and was supported well by Shane Minihane, when Stillorgan Recycled the ball from the resulting ruck we got a penalty. Marcin kicked from half way to 15 yards from the Stones line. a good line out was followed by an exceptional drive which saw a pile of bodies going over the line with what look like Shane M getting the touch down. mark followed a good try with the kick it deserved 10 - 7. Greystones were not trying everything they knew to break through Stillorgan but any line break was stopped by Marcin covering all the Stillorgan backs. 3 mins into injury time we failed to find touch form another good ruck which ended in the Greystones winger getting over in the corner. Half time 15 - 7.
Stillorgan were told to keep at what they were doing but try to play the game in Greystones half by putting kicks behind them as they did to us in the first half. The standard of play didn't drop from either team in the second half but unfortunately Greystones got another two tries leaving a final score of 22 - 7.
Despite the result we can take a lot of positives from this game. we were beaten by a better team and there is no disgrace in that. They won every league match this year. We played well for 80 mins and although we were never going to win we let them know that they were in a match.
We did have our chances and unfortunately we missed a few kicks at goal. We had a few lineouts close to their line and nearly mauled them over the line but they managed to hold us out. During one of the few times they got near our line they scored up in the corner after good work between forwards and backs. They missed the conversion to leave the score 5-0.
Match report by Garrett Fanning
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