22.01.2011 J2 XV v Lansdowne (A)

22/01/20112:30pmLeagueLansdowne15 – 14St. Marys J2 XVAway

St Mary’s J2 15 Landowne J2 14

A frozen pitch in Mary’s forced us to play this game in Ballycorus which was strangely fine underfoot. This was a highly physical and at times brutal match with both teams throwing themselves into contact at every opportunity. We had most of the ball and had the edge up front but could not get through an excellent Lansdowne defence despite being over their line on several occasions. We relied on the metronomic boot of Charlo Connolly to keep the scoreboard ticking over. Charlo kicked two drop goals and three excellent penalties.  They scored a try in the last minute but missed the conversion to win.

We are raging that we put ourselves in a position where we could have lost this game. Our forwards were excellent with Graham Foran outstanding in a great pack performance. We dominated possession but at times were a little one dimensional with the ball not getting to our wingers very often. Third or fourth phase we need to get the ball wider. Next up Stillorgan who are difficult opponents. 

Stephen Shirley.

15. Neil Cowhey  14. Jack Buggy 13. A Shirley 12. J Verdon 11. B Cahill 10. C Connolly 9. E Mucker 1. N Murphy 2. P Barrett 3. M Houlihan (Capt) 4. G McInerney 5. Paul Foran 6. B Brophy 8. G Foran 7. Louis Burke.
Subs (all used): Mark Aboud, Ian Kelly, K Lannon, J Ardagh & Jerome Kennedy.