Terenure College 16-13 Stillorgan
J4 League - Feb 16, 2008
A perfect day for a match was greatly aided by the fact that following some shenanigans from Terenure, we were awarded a home game.
No breeze to speak of and bright sunlight belied the fact it was was a bit of a chilly afternoon, but that didn't stop the brave J4s working up to what promised to be a big game. However, Terenure had other plans and decided that they weren't going to contest the scrum despite the fact they had a recognisable front row to start and another obvious prop subbing. So, rugby league is what the Senior clubs prefer to play nowadays obviously.
Nevertheless the build up continued and the J4 team focussed on the job in hand: Making sure that Terenure realised that we are a different outfit to the team they met at the start of the season.
Stillorgan kicked off playing down the hill and it couldn't have started better, Liam Rowsome's kick falling between two players who couldn't decide who was going to take the ball, so it bounced into touch. We then won the resulting line out and immediately started to pile on the pressure, mauling them back about 15 meters before spreading the ball out to the backs. The pace was a bit too frantic to start with but wave after wave of Stillorgan pressure forced Terenure to give away a penalty inside their 22 and Liam R picked off three easy points.
Terenure replied quickly with a penalty of their own but as soon as the brave men of the Parish composed themselves a try wasn't long in coming. The move started with a tap penalty which Terenure kept off the line much to Mark Cooling's annoyance but two phases later Sean Mitchell crossed over for his first try of the season, a 6 meter surge, taking two defenders with him.
Terenure were under severe pressure for most of the first half and blew a couple of decent chances of their own as our own defence kept up the pressure.
10 minutes left in the first half and Milky went over for the second try of the day and with that Terenure made no fewer than 4 changes, one in the second row, a new out half and 2 backs (including the winger who caused the most problems for us in the earlier fixture).
Despite further pressure, Terenure resisted and Stillorgan went into half time 13 - 3 up.
In the second half Terenure changed their game slightly differently, keeping the ball away from the pack. Spreading the ball out wide, their first try came quickly when they exposed a massive overlap on our right wing and their new wing went over in the corner. The try was converted taking the score to 13 - 10 in our favour.
Stillorgan mauled Terenure up and down the field all day but despite the pressure mounted by us, Terenure resisted and started to turn the screw themselves, kicking into corners and capitalising on our backs getting sucked into the middle of the field. A second try was averted narrowly thanks to a last minute tackle by Liam R. However in much the same way as the first try, their second try did come and in the same corner by the same winger. For the first time in the match Terenure had the lead.
The troops rallied and kept their heads up, but some odd calls from the Ref kept Stillorgan out of Terenure's half and then in the dying seconds of the game we conceded a soft penalty for playing the ball on the ground. The penalty was the last kick of the game and it was slotted over to make the final score 13 - 18 for Terenure.
It was a disappointing result but considering the hidings we've been handed in the past by Terenure J4 teams it was a result to be proud of. Terenure will surely know they were in a tougher game than they could have anticipated and will be relieved to get away with the win.
Terenure played the smarter rugby in the second half, however Stillorgan must take confidence that we put the game to them up front and won the battle there and given that Terenure wouldn't scrum we're left wondering what might have been.
Positives:
This was the best build-up to a game we've had so far this season. We worked well on Thursday night and linking up early meant that the whole XV were reading off the same page for Saturday. The men on the field kept their heads up even when we went behind and took massive pride in their game.
Negative:
Defence. We got caught wide open on the wings for both tries and we need to work on our defensive play and making sure to cover the lines call players out from the breakdown. There's no need for players to stay in rucks, once the play breaks down spread out and look for the overlaps.
It's hard to pick out an individual for man of the match for this game, the XV who started and the subs who came on put their bodies on the line, made the hard tackles and got stuck in for 80 hard minutes, but special mention goes to Colm Conway, playing at outhalf for the second time this season and doing a good job of it. He made some vital tackles and at times it seemed he was being targetted as a weak link for ball carriers. How wrong could they be! His workrate around the field personified the efforts of everyone.
Great work lads.
Match report by Mike Kirwan