1st XV v Lansdowne (H) by D. O’Brien – 16.02.2008
St Mary’s College RFC V Lansdowne FC
13 9
Templeville Road
16th February 2008
The game was not without some good moves and entertainment; however it was not a memorable game. It may seem a little churlish now, when before Christmas we were crying for a win at any cost, but being honest we did not play well today, however, Lansdowne will be even less happy. We did win and deservedly so, being the more adventurous and skilful and indeed we should have scored at least three more tries, while Lansdowne, though strong and competitive, lacked cohesion and bite and did not look a good team today.
There were some positive points to remember; particularly the return of Phillip Brophy at 12 and it was a man of the match return at that. He twinned with Keith Douglas at13 in a fine defensive understanding and together they posed a threat to Lansdowne. In fact today was day when the backs did the better of the two departments. We spilled and turned over a lot of ball, often in good attacking areas; and the usual strong part of our game, our rucking, was sadly lacking. However, near the end we showed some composure in holding on to the ball to see out the game.
The day was wholly perfect for rugby, cool, sunny and with light winds and the pitch was in perfect, condition, looking particularly handsome with the newly erected floodlight masts gleaming proudly in the sunshine. Today was our 4th annual Ladies Day, organised so very well as usual by John (Killer) Kilbride [today a lady killer]and over 200 attended in lots of (and very little) finery. Lansdowne always bring a good group of welcome supporters with them , some like Gerry Cullen and Aidan Delaney with strong St Marys links, and many attended the lunch, at which Frank Kennedy, our president just getting back from the match in Paris, welcomed all particularly Lansdowne and all our sponsors, especially Investec, Topline and Tulfaris and paid a special and well deserved compliment to the J1s, whose affable management [Des Jackson, Patsy Fogarty, Charlie Barry and Reggie Foley (50 today)]were in a attendance, for having won their J1 Metro league with flying colours. He also asked for thoughts for the greatly loved John Boyle, past player and tireless rugby administrator for many years, who is very ill at present; our patron Fr John Flavin CSSp, also asked for prayers for John. Everyone in the club is thinking of him with hope. The Lansdowne President Paddy Halpenny replied with an exceptionally witty and entertaining speech, without even a mention of an altruistic €1M a year for the AIL.
The game started brightly and both sides ran the ball but soon the thrills and spills showed and no real pattern of play emerged. After only five minutes Mark Sexton hit a fine penalty and Lorcan Kavanagh replied with one for Lansdowne two minutes later, they went ahead after 25 minutes with another Kavanagh penalty and at this stage they were a little quicker to the breakdown , but we were exerting more pressure and some fine runs by Ronan Doherty in particular deserved recompense. On 35 minutes our scrum put them under real pressure and when their Eight was caught in possession we rucked over him and Hugh Hogan (warm congrats to Hugh for making the Irish club international side and to Rob Sweeney for being in the match 22) made good ground before Conor Mc Inerney, who was doing a lot of good work in all areas of play, particularly the lineout, made it to the line and stretched to score. Sadly he injured his back in the process and had to retire at the end of the half. The half was completed with another penalty from M Sexton so it was 13 – 6.
The second half saw the introduction, for Conor, of Eoin Keane who put in a good performance and Richie Sweeney, likewise, for Matt Crockett and Juan Gomez for Matt Duggan. In the second half the performance levels raised a little but we failed to increase our score in spite of coming close on several occasions. On eight minutes Lansdowne came uncomfortably close with another penalty, then Kevin Sheahan, who had been working hard, had to retire with knee ligament damage after 10 minutes and Robin Copeland came in for him and did very well, for almost immediately he robbed a ball at the breakdown, made good ground and the move ended with Ronan just tipping the corner flag. We had a few more chances but failed to secure them. In fairness Lansdowne competed throughout although they never posed a serious threat and with more composure St Marys must have come out comfortable winners. As it was there was always the chance that the visitors could have got a breakaway score near the end, however as mentioned earlier, we did control the ball well over the last seven minutes or so including six minutes of injury time. So another four points in the purse and four more games to go. as for today, we have all said before to win is a plain necessity to win pretty is ……….pretty.
Of course we face Shannon again next week this time in the quarter finals of the AIB AIC in Templeville Road 2.30 PM SUNDAY (not Saturday, note). You will also get a chance to see the wonderful new floodlights in action on Friday for the Ladies International against Scotland. Thursday we have our club dinner to look forward to but Sunday is a must so come on support the team, we are still in contention for the three competitions , not bad.
Being Ladies day, afterwards there was a real happy (and young noisy) buzz. There were so many pretty young ladies there, that some even gave Springer the eye, while he was going clockwise around the main bar eight times frantically looking for Barney, who was going anti-clockwise. The band struck up and Frank et al, including Spike and his piano, made it a late early night/day.
D O’Brien
Team:- 15 M Skelton, 14 D Fanning, 13 K Douglas, 12 P Brophy, 11 R Doherty, 10 M Sexton, 9 M D’Arcy, 8 K Sheahan (R Copeland), 7 H Hogan, 6 P Nash, 5 C Mc Inerney (E Keane),.G Logan (Capt), 3 Rob Sweeney, 2 M Crockett (Richie Sweeney), 1 M Duggan (J Gomez).