J5 XV — Season 2019/20

J5 XV v Clontarf (H) – 18.10.2019

St. Mary’s College 12 – Clontarf 17

St. Mary’s J5 side faced familiar opposition Clontarf in Metro Div 10 on Friday night in Templeville Road. Both sides having played each other in a preseason game just a few weeks ago in Castle Avenue which saw Clontarf narrowly win.

The game started off at a blistering pace with Clontarf immediately collecting their own kickoff and putting pressure on the Mary’s defence almost getting in for a try save for some desperate defending to keep them out with Mary’s eventually winning a penalty allowing us to clear our lines.

After this phase, the team began to settle into the match and started putting pressure on the Clontarf running game and giving them less space. This led to several Clontarf errors giving Mary’s a try inside the Clontarf 22 which led to a try on the wing for Dylan Croke. This would be the last time in the half Mary’s posed an attacking threat with Clontarf scoring a try very soon after kickoff and then a further try giving Clontarf a 14-5 lead at half time after having possession for most of the half.

The second half was much improved for St. Mary’s with scrum half Alan McPhillips controlling the tempo of the game and the team began to get much more success in attack. Several powerful carries from Jack Cosgrave, David Browne, David Kennedy in the pack and from captain Eric Dunne and Aidan Boyle in the backline started to bring St. Mary’s back into the game. The majority of the second half was played in the Clontarf half and was a fiercely physical contest with Mary’s clocking up several penalties, without a functioning lineout they resorted to quick tap penalties which became a main part of their attack. Under intense pressure, Clontarf resorted to conceded a string of penalties within their own 22 and ended up with 2 players in the bin. After several attack phases, James Casey broke over the line only to be high tackled in the process which forced the ref into awarding a penalty try putting just a 2 point margin between the sides with minutes to go.

Unfortunately St. Mary’s did not retain possession for long after kickoff and in a desperate attempt to reclaim the ball they conceded several penalties. This allowed Clontarf to slow the game down and tack on a further 3 points. This would be the last score of the night giving Clontarf a 17-12 win. Although they will be disappointed not to have won the game, St. Mary’s can take many positives from the second half performance and will hope to build on that in their next game.

Maurice (website post author)

Scorers. Tries: Dylan Croke, penalty try (awarded when James Casey was high-tackled crossing the line).

From the match report (no team sheet found).

Source: J5 XV (J4-J5 Season Review 2019-20).

After last season’s close calls losing both a league and cup final, the J4/J5 squad were looking forward to the upcoming season entering two teams in Division 9 and 10. Unfortunately players numbers were not as high as expected at the beginning of the season and we had to withdraw from Division 10 so our squad was focused solely on Division 9.

This season our J4 side was captained by Eric Dunne and our coaching team comprised of Dave Gardner, Rob Dunleavy, Ryan Barnes, Dan McManus, Caglar Tuc and as always Maurice Davin working diligently in the background for us. Throughout the season we trained with the J2 and J3 squads and there were many occasions of each squad helping each other out on gamedays if numbers were tight and there was a good bond between the squads.

Like almost every other team in the club, our season was sadly cut short due to the COVID-19 pandemic which obviously puts it all in perspective. Up until this, our team was in with a chance of reaching the league final against Parkmore and was looking forward to playing against our friends Emerald Warriors in the first round of the O’Connor Cup.

Until the season was concluded, our team had played some great games and put in some memorable performances. Highlights include great wins against Malahide, Parkmore and Monkstown all before Christmas. The 29 point win against Monkstown was a sublime performance and was inspired no doubt by last year’s league final defeat to Monkstown. Then after Christmas we had some very tough away games. In early January we scraped together a side to travel to Carlow where we put in valiant effort in awful conditions but were beaten despite a first try for this writer in around 8 seasons. However I think the most memorable game was away to Newbridge during Storm Jorge. The elder members of the squad all agreed it was by far the coldest, windiest and most miserable conditions they’ve ever played in but Mary’s still worked hard and got a 12-3 win.

Although the season didn’t end as anyone expected, the team performed very well going up a division and deserved to have a chance to compete for the league and cup. Thanks to the coaches and management who put in so much work on the pitch and behind the scenes for us. Thanks to the players who put the hours in to make our season successful and to those who came out of retirement and came from the U20 and other junior squads to help us out, you all made a great contribution and we would have been not had so many successes without you. I’m sure a few players may have anticipated that this season would be their retirement season and did not get that “one last game” due to the season being cut short. To those, I hope you come back for the 2020/2021 season to give it another crack and for anyone else who hasn’t played in a while we would love to have you back!

Season Summary:

Division 9: 2nd Place (Won 8 Drawn 1 Lost 3)

O’Connor Cup: Cup not held

David Browne