Stillorgan 10-5 Bective Rangers
J4 League - Jan 26, 2008
The J4s took to the senior pitch on a bright but windy Saturday afternoon in order to allow the back pitch to dry off for the J3 game on Sunday.
The slightly larger pitch though held no major concern as we were playing a Bective side we had soundly beaten on their turf early in the season.
Complancy, however, seemed to be in abundance with several players arriving very late for warmups, forcing those of us warming up to consider putting forwards into the backline. This is never good for pre-game preparation and it's something that could really cause us trouble in games against better teams.
Playing against the wind in the first half, Stillorgan took the early initiative and through some well organised forward play we found ourselves closing in on thier line and forcing Bective to concede a penalty on the 5M line. The tap penalty was rushed and Sean McCann, in an uncharacteristic rush of blood, fired the ball out to Colm Conway with what seemd to be an overlap, however Colm was a long way out and by the time the ball got to him, the defensive line was already well on top and got the ball relatively easily. Bective had clearly made some changes in their J4 lineup compared to the team we played in October, and the fullback was a talented guy and I would say one of their better players on the day, running well and kicking intelligently. On this occasion he kicked downfield and forced us back into our own 22. It wasn't long before we found ourselves in a ruck on our own line, the ball sitting just over the try line. While a pigball was being set up, one of their forwards leaned over and placed his had on the ball and the ref awarded a try. There was some confusion about the ruling, but the 15 men of the Parish got their heads together while the conversion was being missed.
The first half continued with Bective keeping is pinned back but our defence held strong and we broke out occasionally, but their fullback always kicked them out of trouble. Bective blew their chance to increase their lead to 8 when they missed a penalty in front of the sticks. The kick instead took the heads of a few daisies.
The half ended with just the one score.
The half finished 12 - 5 in our favour.
Donough's kick-off got stuck in the mud and failed to make the 10 meters. From the resulting scrum UCD made slow progress down the park and were assisted by more quick penalty calls from the ref, but in fairness we should have learned from the first penalty. A couple of moments later UCD went over the line in the corner but failed to make the conversion.
After this jolt we tried to play some pig ball but there was nothing doing, through a combination of some decent UCD defence and some panicky play from us.
UCD made their way down the pitch again and some back to the wall defence from us meant UCD didn't go over, but at a price. As we cleared our lines, Octo remained on the ground. After getting him off the pitch it seemed that he'd broken his nose. He's certainly turning into one ugly fcuker thanks to the J4s!
The first half ended with UCD leading 8 - 0.
After the turn, Stillorgan played their trademark J4 rugby and played it well. After a short spell of Bective pressure, we were able to start imposing our game on them, keeping the ball tight and drawing in their defenders. We spent 10 minutes driving the ball downfield and were rewarded with a penalty which was put into the corner. The lineout secured we worked our way towards the middle of the park where Bective conceded another penalty. Shane tapped this quickly and put the ball down over the line having carried over 4 defenders with him. Liam Rowsome added the conversion.
Shortly after that, Bective were awarded another kickable penalty with which to retake the lead but this time it was pushed wide. From the restart we made some hard work of getting back down the field and were having some serious trouble getting out of our half. Octo made the inspired decision to change outhalf and I think Colm was relieved to get out onto the wing and allow Liam to take up duty behind the pack.
Liam is gifted in directing the forwards and the backs and steers the team around the pitch deftly. Shortly after he came on we got another penalty inside the Bective 22. Liam Rowsome again stuck it over the bar to make the score 10 - 5 and right from the restart we maintained the pressure not letting Bective back into the game. Liam R missed a penalty in the dying seconds and shortly after the 22 dropout the ref blew up for full time.
Job done.
While there's not much to criticise this week, the one point I would make is decision making at penalty situations. We can play to our strengths in the pack and not every penalty has to be a quick tap, but it was nice after last week to profit from one!
With about 10 minutes to go the scraps got out of hand and there was a scuffle on the halfway line. This was soon broken up and we made our way to their five meter line where the scuffle resumed with Liam Kelly taking a UCD man to the ground, without Doddsy there to call "Sparta", it seemed everyone knew what to do anyway and most of those on field got involved. Two yellow cards later (one for Liam Kelly and one for the other guy) the game resumed. It wasn't long before Liam Rowsome was also making his way off for an early shower.
Positives
Intelligent forward play. Unhurried pigball, well organised in support and rucking, brilliant counter rucking and fantastic mauling. The referee unfortunately missed out on no less than 4 occasions when we were threatening the bective line in mauling situations only to see them pull it down. A pretty poor display on their behalf, however the chat to the ref was minimal and that was great to see. Hopefully we can build on this.
Backline. It was good to see some of the moves that are worked on in training being used on the pitch come gameday. Better still when they work! There were some great linebreaks and some brilliant go-forward ball. Contact was won in attack and defence and made the game a lot easier to play.
Man of the match: Nick. He's got to be knocking on the door of a J3 call, but the longer he isn't, the better for us! Great game in winning turnover ball and taking the game to the opposition.
Honorable mentions: John Egan: Took on the captaincy and proved his worth. He played out of his skin until he was forced off by injury. Leading from the front is what captaincy is all about. Liam Rowsome: Kept his trap shut and played some rugby! And great rugby it was too. Strong running, hard tackling and half of the points tally for the day. Paul Walsh: Just back from injury, near perfect lineout throwing, solid in the scrums and well executed pigballs.
Moment of the match: Kevin "Mealamu" Reid in the center, dumping the Bective No. 8 on his ass. Just goes to show what you can do when you're pumped up enough.
We don't have a game for a couple of weeks (I think??). Ahead of the final run in we can all use some fitness training so we should all be looking to be there two nights a week for the next fortnight. All the games we have left to play are against teams who have beaten us already and one of those we lost because we ran out of steam. Let's make sure that doesn't happen again.
For the Parish
Match report by Mike Kirwan