14.01.2012 J4 XV v Lansdowne (H)

14/01/201211:00amLeagueSt. Marys J4 XV17 – 5LansdowneHome

J4’s 17 Lansdowne 5

An early KO for the J4’s and clearly a few players on both sides were still in bed! The game started off in a sloppy manor with silly mistakes from both teams. Not much of note had happened in the game when a lovely break from Pyner led to him putting the returning Shane Cunningham in the clear and with one man to beat to the corner there was only ever going to be one winner and Cunno duly turned on the gas to score the opening try. Ted added the conversion to make it 7-0. There wasn’t long to wait before our second try, some lovely back play saw Nick race clear and with one man to beat passed outside to Bam Bam who was up in support and he was never going to be caught as he ran, unaccompanied, under the posts to make the conversion easy for Ted to slot over. 14-0 up and there was a real chance this could turn into a rout. Fair play to Lansdowne however, they fought back into the game and only for some determined defence would have had more than their one try right on half time scored by their giant no. 8.

The second half was a dull affair as the ground became tacky and the match became a slog with neither team being able to put away the sparse chances which presented themselves. Some good pressure from Lansdowne meant the lads needed to give themselves a few reminders and gradually took control of the game despite creating few chances. The only score of the half came from a penalty from Ted to make up for the “perfect stat” ruining earlier penalty miss.  A mention to Chi Yuen who despite showing a shocking loss of pace after too many nights out over Christmas managed to dump the Lansdowne 8 as he attacked our line toward the end of the game. No mean feat!

Next up Greystones and their all conquering J, ahem, 4 team.