Suttonians 10-44 Stillorgan
J3 League - Nov 4, 2007
First half
Game kicked off at 2.30 in Sutton. Stillorgan lost the toss and ended up receiving the first kick off. We quicky got into out stride with the pack taking the ball up the pitch and some good running by the backs. Suttonians didnt really get out of their half for the first 10 or 15 minutes. The Stillorgan scrum was good with the front 3 of Alan, Johnny Belton and Nigel playing very well. Stillorgan got an early try through Garrett to go 5 up early on. Pat Fitz was doing well off kick offs but the rest of the forwards were a bit sluggish in getting around him and protecting the ball and turnovers resulted on at least one occasion.
Further Stillorgan pressure yielded 3 penalties which Timmy slotted over. Timmys kicking from placed balls and from hand was very good throughout where he took the pressure off and gained good yards on more than one occassion. Suttonians added a penalty to leave it 14 - 3 at half time.to the visitors. This was a reasonable lead but it could have been more.
Second half
Stillorgan struggled a bit to get out of their own half and the penalty count was poor. Trinity really should have slotted a penalty or 2 to go into the lead but their kicker was poor.
Stillorgan took a grip of the game in the 2nd half. A spray of tries resulted. Doddsy got one from the back of a maul - the rest of the pack doing the hard work and Doddsy taking the glory !! Fin got his name on the score sheet. Niall Donahue made an inspired substitution showing the Midas touch to bring on Donnacha who crashed over the line under the posts from half a yard out with his first touch of the ball to register another 5 points. Danny also got his name on the try list and (If I remember right) Doddsy also got another late try.
An intercept pass from Suttonians resulted in they getting the 7 points.
We played open rugby in the 2nd half which was great when it came off but we always wont have as much space to do this and the opposition such as Clontarf and Naas will be stronger outfits. We had backs popping up in the pack - Brian Shanahan got stuck into linouts - and forwards like Pauraic and Doddsy popping up out wide.
We may have to play tighter rugby in future games but lets not take from this win either.
Positives
Overall squad - Mike Mac filled in at full back the last minute and played very well. Johnny Belton filled in at hooker and had a stormer in scrums as did the front row in general, other lads were willing to sub and turn out eventhough they didnt get a run and played J4 on saturday aswell Final score - bonus point in the bag Timmy's kicking Front rows scrummaging Back row leading the charge Fin's tacking in the centre - 1 in particular giving us a penalty
Things to work on
Lets keep our heads - too much 7s type rugby may cost us against better teams Linout may need a bit of fine tuning Rucking wasnt 100% but improved as the game went on. Securing ball from kick offs - Pat Fitz is winning it but we are not supporting him 100% and I won 1 (yes amazing as it may seem) but got flattened and ball was turned over.
See ye tmw night girls
Match report by Richard McMahon