St. Mary's College RFC 16-16 Stillorgan
Moran Cup Semi-Final - April 6, 2008
Well what can I say a game that will go down in Stillorgan folklore!! After only arriving in Sat from 90 degrees heat and 90% humidity Garrett was brought back down to earth quite literally with huge hailstones smashing into us in the warmup!! We were playing a Marys team who had not lost at home (so they said) in 5 years. We had a reorganised backline that with a few players in different positions.
We won the toss and decided to play with the very strong wind towards the club house. We started off really well with the forwards really taking it to the Marys Pack. The shackles were taken off and this was exemplified with Danny taking a quick tap penalty just outside his 22 he made some good yardage with the ball going through several hands only to be stopped 50ms down the pitch. They were doing alot of moves involving their number 8 (incidently played for Old wesley 1sts last year) but tricky and the backrow were doing a great job defending him and catching him behind the gameline on occasions. We scored our first try when off a Marys lineout 5ms from their own line - Pat fitz caught their player and ripped the ball off him behind the line to score a great try. Unfortunately we missed a hard convert so the score was 5-0 to stillorgan.
We continued to put real pressure on them all over the park with the forwards doing well in the Maul and nearly getting over again. This yielded another penalty which Timmy converted to make the score 8-0. Marys then started to come back into it - they put alot of pressure on us in our own 22 but great defence kept them out. Their pressure yielded a penalty which they converted to make it 8-3. They continued to press and did a nice cross field chip to their winger who looked like he was going to score but for a brillant tackle by Timmy who was playing at fullback. We got a penalty inside their 22 but took a quick tap when taking the points would have probally been the better option. We then scored a very good try off their lineout where Doddsy stole the ball made a nice run and offload to Padraig to score in the corner to put the score at halftime 13-3.
Second half we were playing against the wind and we did not start off very well kicking the ball out on the full off kickoff. Marys starting using the wind very well kicking the ball into our 22 in the left hand side which we really struggled to get out of. They continued to put pressure on us and we were starting to struggle to get any ball as our lineout was struggling a bit in the windy conditions. They got an early penalty to bring the score to 13-6. Again we kicked straight out putting the pressure on ourselves. We spent 80% of the time in our own 22 they got another score through a rolling maul which they converted to make the score 13-13 all with Marys having all the Momentum!!
This team though is different it stared into the abyss and the fought our way back up the pitch!! Fowards were taking up the ball nicely with Pat Fitz and the shanahans being prominent with Danny customerary Dummy kick (all those years of playing football in the Kingdom put him in good stead!) A good breakout by Padraic and finn yielded a penalty 40ms out into the wind!! It was probally the first time we had been in their Half in the second half- Cometh the hour cometh the man as Timmy stepped up to slot the kick!! We had 7 minutes left to hold onto the lead, Marys attacked ferociously but our Defence was superb. Ref then gave some questionable penalties one being a blocked kick which Padraic caught he should technically be onside- they missed. Then with 3 mins to go they got a penalty 40ms out after Danny had looked like he had stolen the ball legitimately. They got the kick for the game to finish 16-16 during normal time.
So we went had 10 minutes a side extra time. About 5 minutes in Doddsy decided he wanted a break so he punched one of their players right in front of the ref to get yellow carded!! This made our job even harder as they moved their number 8 into the centres to try and bash him through but their was no way through!!! We had a few hairy moments one kick ahead by them we took a while to touch down and only just made it. With 2 mins to go they missed a drop goal that nearly looked harder to miss then get. Ref blew up for a Fantastic win for the Club - probally one of the best in the clubs history.
Positives
Defence- it was immense by everyone some huge hits all over the park under severe pressure. Defence wins matches we have conceeded 2 tries 2/3 times this season so if we do not conceed penalties we will be very hard to beat.
Discipline- this was excellent bar one silly moment - I was not at the Terenure game but I hear we lost the plot discipline wise. Lads if we trust our defence and do not give away silly penalties we are going to be very hard to beat!!!! Do you want to be the one who gives away a stupid penalty that ends our season??
Scrum- being a bit of an expert here ;-) the pack domintated at scrum time making it very hard to do anything with their own ball
Areas that need to be tweaked
Lineouts - we struggled at times in the lineouts to win our own ball - it was pretty windy at times so might be wise when we are struggling to go to our banker ball- I am sure you big lumps up front have one of them :-)
Game management- This is cup rugby all you have to do is win by 1pt (nothing for 4 tries) so take any easy points that are available as games will be very tight!!
Kicking out of hand in play- This is an area we tend to struggle in especially when we are stuck in our 22 and really do struggle to kick our way out of it putting us under pressure. We also did not always use the wind to our advantage and then trust our defence.
Backs- had a few players in new positions so probally need a few sessions to gel properlly so we can tear teams apart
Overall fantastic result but it is only the Quarter final and we have semi final Sunday week against either DLSP or Greystones who will both be very good. Lets go and try and get one step further then last year!!!
Match report by Garret Fanning