13.11.2010 J4 XV v Blackrock (H)
| 13/11/2010 | 12:00pm | League | St. Marys J4 XV | 13 – 10 | Blackrock College | Home |
The J4’s hosted Blackrock in the last match of the first stage of the J4 league on Saturday.
Rock needed a result to maintain their chances of qualifying for the next stage and put out a strong side accordingly. They opened well, earning a shot at goal inside the Mary’s half after only 2 minutes, but the kick was wide.
Mary’s drew first blood after 7 minutes with a penalty from Teddy after a high tackle on scrum-half Ross Wynne on the Blackrock 22. 3-0 to Mary’s.
The two sides were well matched and the score remained the same until the 30th minute when Rock won a turnover and brought play down into the Mary’s 22. After a period of pressure about 5 metres out from our line, they earned a penalty, tapped quickly and managed to score. 3-7 to Blackrock.
With 3 minutes left in the half, Rock let Mary’s back into it, conceding a careless penalty for offside while trying to keep a Mary’s touch finder in play. Ted slotted the points for 6-7.
There was still time for Mary’s to earn another shot at goal with the last play of the game but Teddy couldn’t convert the difficult kick and Rock maintained their one point lead at half-time.
The second half remained very close, with few scoring chances. Rock kicked a penalty to extend their lead to 6-10, but increased pressure from Mary’s led to Rock having a man yellow carded for killing the ball in the 22.
Mary’s pushed hard but it looked like the scoring opportunity might not come. Our luck changed in the 75th minute however, when good pressure on a Rock lineout in their own 22 led to a tap down which their scrum-half managed to clean up, only to turn and pass to the loitering Mary’s out-half, Teddy Moran. Teddy only had a few metres to run to score the try under the posts. He added the extras and Mary’s were back in front, 13-10.
We failed to deal with the Rock kick-off and conceded a penalty and a yellow card with skipper Phil Conway adjudged to have deliberately played the ball from an offside position to prevent Rock capitalising. Rock opted for the posts to level the scores but the kick went wide and Mary’s closed out the remaining 2 minutes to maintain our unbeaten record in the first group stage.
The Super 6 awaits in 2 weeks time with our wins over the 2 teams going through with us carrying over to that stage.
15. D. O’Neill 14. N. Cunningham 13. D. Carpenter 12. P. Moran 11. C. Hui 10. B. Moran 9. R. Wynne 8. P. Nestor 7. T. Henderson 6. R. O’Neill 5. P. Conway 4. J. Twomey 3. R. Kelly 2. E. Moran 1. A. Godfrey