J1 XV v Lansdowne (A) by D. O’Brien – 30.03.2025
Lansdowne FC J1 V St Mary’s College RFC J1
31 29
Metro League Premier 1
Final
Aviva Stadium
Sunday 30th March 2025.
Overview
This was a high quality, high paced and high excitement game; for the visitors it was sadly a high heart break. Playing on the artificial surface made bounces erratic, however, St Marys handled all well and thrived. The Marys backline was sizzling with two fine centres and a lightning back three all bouncing. Marys scored five tries to Lansdowne’s four, however Lansdowne had more luck with their kicking. Unfortunately, Ian Wickham and captain, Aaron O’Neill were unavailable. Paul Deeny, who had played part of the senior game yesterday, came in and had a very fine game, with high quality and clever work in the tight and open. Special credit to Adam McEvoy, who took over captaincy and switched from his normal scrumhalf position to outhalf and played and ran the game very well. He was well served by young scrumhalf Shane McGrath, who had a high tempo game; his kicking was good, he varied his play well and with pace he was to the breakdowns rapidly. He had a standout game. He also scored twice.
Lansdowne had a much heavier pack which made scrums particularly problematic for their visitors. However in all other regards Marys young pack matched or outplayed their hosts. All worked to drop, with Jamie Harding, playing a leading role and remaining on the field when in some pain. The two young props, Jack Reidy-Walsh and Adam Mulvihill have senior experience and did all they could to counter Lansdowne’s big weight advantage. Leon Potts has big potential and has made notable and sustained progress this season and certainly played his part today. The backrow, was highly competitive, Joe Durkan led the charge, he is a hardy young man and had a notable game. His carrying was effective and work rate excellent. He was well backed by ubiquitous Dan Lyons a great battler and committed team man. There should be admiration in plenty for Howard Noonan, a hooker by nature, but a conscientious convert to Seven, and he was at his active best today and scored a fine try. The bench showed its abilities too as called on.
As we know by now this is a talented J1 assemblage and has had a very successful season, with more to come in the Metro Cup.
The Game
A fast build up and a dummy on the line gave Lansdowne’s scrum half a chance to dive over and so it was 7-0 after three minutes; a shock. The Marys lads rallied and built pressure. It was 11 minutes and the ball went left to right, Adam drew his marker and gave to Zach Hopkins over from his left wing, he just arched around his marker slipped through the gap and hit Mk2, picked out Shane who was following fast and he went over close in. Unfortunately the conversion effort hit the post so 7-5.
On 17 minutes Lansdowne scored again under the posts, 14-5. Marys again put on pressure and after a lot of close hard work by the pack, Shane picked from back of a maul, dummied and went, he was tackled over the line but his determination got the ball down close in. Unfortunately the conversion was missed and it was 14-10. On 26 minutes, Marys went ahead. A scrum on the halfway saw a break from the back to the right, then hands and it reached Eoin Carey, who was a constant threat, he accelerated, then gave to flying Stephen Kennedy, he left the defence in shreds as he zinged along the touchline, dummied and swayed, then scored wide-out, super! Adam had a marvellous conversion from way out, 14-17. Lansdowne re-took the lead with a converted try on the half hour, 21-17.
It was 35 minutes, in their own half after a ruck, Shane delivered the ball to Peter O’Beirne who cleverly drew his man and gave to Eoin, he carved open the defence and fed back to Peter who drew, and delivered to zippy Zach, who just evaporated the defence and made it almost to the line, the ball was driven, then Howard picked and drove himself with power over for a try. Skipper Adam, converted again and it was 21-24. On half time, a break from their scrum gave Lansdowne the lead, 28-24.
The second half was three minutes old when Lansdowne converted a penalty. 31-24. It was 50 minutes gone, when we won a turn over on the Lansdowne 22 it was swept out and Stephen Kilgallen who was a thorn in the side of the defence, made ground with pace and power and he gave to Stephen Kennedy and he hit the turbo, to whip over the line. That made the score 31-29.
Unfortunately, we could not score again; we got ever so near on a few occasions and missed a penalty chance, but it was not to be. But it was a memorable match, played in sporting fashion, displaying young talent from both sides. Our lads have much to be proud of, as has Eanna Clynes and his management of Darren Walker and Garry Manning. All will wish for better fortune when we turn attention back to the Metropolitan Cup next weekend. They deserve big support and it is hoped that we will see it, as we did today.
Match Squad
15 S Kilgallen, 14 S Kennedy, 13 E Carey, 12 P O’Beirne, 11 Z Hopkins, 10 A McEvoy (Capt.), 9 S McGrath, 8 J Durkan, 7 H Noonan, 6 D Lyons, 5 L Potts, 4 P Deeny, 3 J Reidy-Walsh, 2 J Harding, 1 A Mulvihill, 16 M McHugh, 17 J Lynch, 18 D Cullen, 19 R Molloy, 20 R Moore.
D O’Brien.