J3 XV — Season 2009/10

The J3 had their second outing on Friday night in Belvedere in a friendly under lights. The St.Mary's team that took the pitch was an amalgam of J3, 2 & 5 players who needed a run out before the leagues kick off in the next few weeks. The game was played over 3 twenty minute periods at our hosts request and Belvedere went into a 6 - 0 lead early on, but a well taken try by James Dunne brought us back into the game as we were struggling for continuity as half of us had never met,The second 20 minute period started badly as Belvo scored a try to go 11 - 5 ahead, however following on from that we came back into the game and in the last 20 minute we scored two tries one from Gonza and a 80 metre dash down the touch line by Garry Crawford seal the win for St.Mary's at 11 - 17. Many thanks to Mossy of the J5's for helping us out at very shortnotice with players who did their team proud against players who play two teams above them but more than held their own. The league starts for the J3's on Friday October 9 in Monkstown all support welcomed

Sydney Parade

The J3 kicked off their league campaign under lights in Sydney Parade, Monkstown first ever match under lights. The game started poorly for St.Mary's and Monkstown put us under a lot of pressure and had two penalties in kickable positions to take a 6 point lead but failed. These scare woke us up and some great forward rucking and quick ball and hands saw winger Mark Brown dive over in the corner for the first score of the game. Conversion was missed and we took a 5 point lead. From the kick off we came back at Monkstown and with great inter passing from Stephen Walsh and Shane Timmons saw Timmons score from half way. The dropped kick conversion was just wide but we were in the ascendancy now. From the restart a Monkstown tried to cut Peter Barrett in two with out the ball, yellow card. we could not make the extra man pay so half time was 10-0 to St.Mary's. We put all the pressure on at the beginning of the second half and on 46 minutes Joe Norton slotted a penalty to put us 13-0 up.It would be another 20 minutes before we scored again with a well taken try by Graham Crawford and conversion from Joe Norton put us 20-0 up. Now went looking for the bonus point for 4 tries but we were frustrated by Monkstown and rush from us to score the try. Monkstown did score a very dubious try with ten minutes to go 20-5. We saw out the game in their half. Delighted with our first win and a good performance from the team who played together for the first time, signs look good for the rest of the campaign.

Ruaidhri Moran

Templeville Road

First league game at home under lights and St.Mary's faced Suttonians. We started the game slowly and were on the back foot from the off Sutton had us deep in our own half and we gave away an easy penalty for killing the ball in front of the posts. 3-0 to Sutton, this woke us up and we went on the offensive and put Sutton under enormous pressure. A great weaving run by Gary Roche saw him touch down to the right of the posts, Joe Norton converted the try by hitting both upright and the cross bar, have missed an earlier penalty. We were now dominating the lineouts both on ours and Suttons ball and our pressure paid off with a penalty which was converted by Joe Norton, we had a ligitamate try disallowed but at half time the score was 10-3 to St.Mary's. We started the second well and put Sutton under pressure from the off and were awarded another penalty which Joe Norton converted. 13-3. We were playing very well and were exerting enormous pressure on Sutton but our execution close to the line was poor and we squandered a couple of good try score opportunities. However we did score another penalty through Joe Norton. With the introduction of our substitutions saw a change to our fortunes Geoff Foley on for the injured Shane Timmons made a great break for the line from a maul and was denied a legitimate, we were awarded a scrum instead! Geoff Foley was involved soon after in our second try with a blind side break from a ruck he made 20 metres before soft hands sent Alex Mullin over in the corner, our best move of the night. The conversion was missed and we saw out the game 21-3 winners. An improving performance from all 19 who played we were strong in the lineout and scrum and our backs always looked dangerous. Confidence is good and we look forward to Belvedere at home on Friday the 30th.

Team: 15 A.Dalton (M.Daly) 14 A.Mullin, 13 S.Nagle, 12 G.Roche, 11 N.Sheedy (R.Croker), 10 J.Norton, 9 B.McNamara, 8 B.Shortt,7 S.Timmons (G.Foley sub), 6 B.Young (C), 5 G.Prunty, 4 C.Lennon, 3 G.King (C.O'Driscoll), 2 G.Edgeworth, 1 P.Barrett

Ruaidhri Moran

Templeville Road

The third game in our league campaign was against a strong Belvedere side, we started of slowly again this week and Belvedere had us under pressure for long periods of the half. Their pressure resulted in a converted try as we attempted to run the ball from our own 22, a kick was blocked down and they gathered and scored under the posts. We began to exert some pressure of our own and a move across the line and a fine break by Alex Mullin down the touch line was finished off by Simon Nagle in support who scored a good try, Joe Norton converted the points, half time was 7-7. The second half saw St.Mary's start at a blistering pace and great rucking and forward driving saw us awarded a penalty which Joe Norton converted, 10-7. Another penalty converted by Joe Norton took us to 13-7. We were now going well in parts and a well taken try after some good handling from the backs saw Alex Mullin score a fine try in the corner, conversion missed we led 18-7. Belvedere came back at us and scored a good try to bring us back to 18-12. The match was in the last five minutes and we were hammering away at the Belvedere line, when from a scrum Brendan Shortt picked from the base of the scrum to score under the posts. Joe Norton converted to finish the game 24-12. A win is a win and a patchy win is better than a loss. There are sterner challenges ahead so we will need to improve all round to maintain our unbeaten run. A note on Cormac Tracey from the U20 who played very well and was a threat with ball in hand on the wing, thanks to the management of the U20 for Cormac and Brian Heavey.

Team: 15.A.Dalton 14. C.Tracey 13.S.Nagle 12. R.Croker (Sub M.Browne) 11. A.Mullin 10. J.Norton 9 B.McNamara (Sub: B.Heavey) 8.B.Shortt 7. G.Foley (Sub: S.Timmons) 6.B.Young 5. G.Prunty 4.C.Lennon 3.G.King (Sub: C.Smyth) 2.P.Barrett (Sub:G.Edgeworth) 1. K.Keating.

Ruaidhri Moran

Parsonstown, Leixlip

4th game of our league campaign was a Sunday affair in Barnhall, we started at a blistering pace and scored a well taken try on 4 minutes 5-0 and going strong we were very much in the ascendancy and a penalty on 22 minutes converted by J.Norton put us 8-0 up. we were making lots of chances to score but the final pass would not go to hand, we did not score again until the 35th minute when N.Sheedy scored an opportunist try and J.Norton converted 15-0 to us at half time. The second half was a frustrating 40 minutes with Barnhall scoring a penalty early on, we could not turn our possession or field position into points and the game finished 15-3 in our favour. We will take the win bit there is a sense that we let a bonus point slip, we move on though and look forward to playing Terenue on Friday at home.

Team:15.G.Saenz, 14.A.Mullin, 13.S.Nagle, 12. M.Browne, 10.J.Norton, 9.B.McNamara, 8.B.Shortt, 7.G.Foley, 6.B.Young (C), 5.G.Prunty, 4.C.Lennon, 3.P.Barrett, 2.G.Edgeworth, 1.C.Smyth

Ruaidhri Moran

Templeville Road

The J3's suffered their first defeat in the league on Friday night. A game that we should have won the but failed to do was down to us not playing smart rugby in the first half and standing off rucks in the first half when Greystones were leading 6-3. in the second half we started to play to our strengths and made better headway but found ourselves down 9-3 to a ridiculous penalty awarded by a decidedly poor referee. a great try scored by Ian Kelly on 75 minutes brought us back to 9-8 but we could not convert the kick, from the kick off greystones were awarded another penalty 12-8. From the kick of we knocked on and the game was over. The only consolation was that we gained a loosing bonus point and we have a game in hand. With two more home games we need to up our performances to put us back on track.

Ruaidhri Moran

Templeville Road

Friday nights match was a very disappointing affair as we went down to our second defeat in the campaign. The match was played with great spirit and effort by St.Mary's but two mistakes and a penalty in the first half saw us 15-0 down at half time, we had also lost Alex Mullin & Ian Kelly to injury in the first 40 minutes which was unfortunate as we had lost two of our recognised place kickers to injury. The second half was much better for us and we played with such aggression, passion and pace that any normal J3 team would have caved in but our opponents are no run of the mill J3 team! we scored a great try by Niall Sheedy after a fantastic period of play and possession. That was to be our only score as we had to clear tries disallowed, those are the breaks. The lads gave there all and were very disappointed to loose. We will go away and return in the new year looking to start back on a winning track and put us back in the league.

Ruaidhri Moran

JJ McDowell Memorial Grounds, Sutton

The J3 swung back into action with a bonus point win against suttonians last Sunday. A month after our last match we were ring rusty and a bit sluggish, but that said a good performance by the whole team, tries by Graham Crawford (2), Simon Nagle, David Williams and Alex Mullin secured the necessary 5 points which puts us right back in contention for the league, a mention must go to Donal Joyce who turned out for the first 40 with a good display to cover in the back row, thanks to Mossy Davin for the two J5 players, James Nolan and Anthony O'Hanlon who did very well in the pack and are a credit to the J5's. Our next outing is Monkstown at home which is another must win game.

Ruaidhri Moran

Templeville Road

The J3's recorded the biggest winning score this season with a 54-5 victory win over Barnhall on sparsely populated Templeville on Friday night last(There must have been some other match on). The victory was as a result of good play and attitude of all 20 players involved, we played from the first whistle to the last, there were two tries from the props, three for Mark Browne on the wing and tries for Alan Shirley & Simon Nagle. Niall Sheedy kicked some great conversions. The support play and off loading was good and an improvement on our previous victory over Belvedere and light years from the sloppy win over Monkstown the week before that. The bonus point was secured in the first 40 and we did not sit back on our laurels but kicked on and scored another 4 tries in the second half. This sets up nicely for our match game against Terenure down on there patch on Sunday week, it is a winner take all situation and we are confident of doing what is required to win.

Ruaidhri Moran

Lakelands

This was a match that got away from us from in the first 20 minutes when we found ourselves 20 points to nil down. We never recovered from that and went on to experience our biggest defeat in the last two years to an unfeasibly strong Terenure team. Two factors affected the outcome of this game. first was our failure to follow the agreed game plan and ability to deal with the pressure applied by Terenure. The second was the Obvious strength of our opponents who were very much changed side from our last meeting! No point crying over spilt milk we must show character and learn from this defeat if we want to win the cup which is very much within our ability to do. The team played for the 80 minutes to a man and did not give up playing rugby to the end and credit to them for that, we are a better team then the scorline suggests.

Ruaidhri Moran

Dr Hickey Park, Greystones

A redemption of sorts, the team picked its self up and played some good rugby on Friday night, tries by Alex Mullin, Niall Sheedy & Peter Timmons sealed the victory against a strong Greystones team especially up front where they dominated for periods of the game but our resilience shone through to keep them from scoring. In all a good result for the lads who played well from 1 to 15.The result was of great benefit to the readers of our reports in Terenure as they have now won the league as a result of our victory.

One more league game and then the cup starts on the26th.

Ruaidhri Moran

Donnybrook

After ten years the Moran Cup has returned to Templeville Road. The team from 15 to 1 put in an exceptional performance from the kick off to the final whistle, they hounded Terenure in every aspect of the game and gave them no respite.

Terenure started at full tilt and put us under sustained pressure from the off and were camped on our line but our defence was resolute and we drove them back from our line, they were awarded an early penalty and instead of taking their points went to the corner and then their line out was not straight! A great cover tackle by Niall Sheedy saved a certain try and the danger was lifted. That was the last time in the game that we were seriously threatened. We dominated from the 10th minute onwards, a great try by Alex Mullin put us 5-0 up. At half time we regrouped and upped the pressure and eventually we scored a close in try after a number of phases when Ian Kelly crashed over for our second try and his third of the cup campaign! 10-0 and we were in total control of every facet of play, lineout, rucks, mauls & scrum. The game finished with St.Mary's running out 10-0 winners and a well deserved victory for a disciplined, committed, determined and skilful team that had suffered two defeats in the league to this Terenure team early in the season.

There a number of people to thank for their assistance and commitment to help us win the cup, Donal Joyce for his work with the forwards, Donal Swift for all his conditioning training which ensured we finished our games stronger then our opponents, Des Jackson for his work with the backline, John Ayling for his match day support,all those players who throughout the season helped make the team what it is. They know who they are, Dave and the rugby council for all their encouragement and help with selection, Niall Rynne for his support, Alan, Steve & Mikey of the J2's for their help throughout the season true club men one and all and last but not least our captain Brian Young who led by from the front and by example where the lads willingly followed.

Ruaidhri Moran