J1 XV v UCD (H) by D. O’Brien – 19.01.25
St Mary’s College RFC J1s V UCD RFC J1s
29 21
Templeville Road
Sunday 19th January 2025.
Metro League
Overall
This was a fine game of rugby on a perfect afternoon. Both clubs can be happy with their senior squads’ strengths with back up teams like these. It was good to see several of the senior team members there to support their squad colleagues. Conor Dean and Mark Fogarty were there with the Club Captain Ronan who had with him, his most endearing and impressive Shepherd puppy.
Like their senior counterparts the home J1s, having scored a good mauled try by in-form Howard Noonan. Marys let UCD build a 5-21 lead before half time. This lead was due to hard straight running by an athletic and enterprising UCD assemblage and by weak tackling on the Marys side. After half time, and a chat with Eanna Clynes their coach, the home side locked the defence and played with pace and purpose with the halves of talented Aaron O’Neill and Shane McGrath controlling the game. Swashbuckling Joe Nolan, Conor Pierce (both scored tries) and man for all seasons Dan Lyons lead the pack to control matters in the tight and loose. The scrum with a strong front row became totally dominant. Lineouts too, were notable with the commendable Ian Wickham and Leon Potts in control.
Once the doors were shut, the backline was excellent with two wingers who excelled and who have great promise. Mid field too played an important part in the victory, and Alex Dix never shirks at 15. He keeps an eye out for his teammates. The replacements were judiciously used and having the quality of James Harding to come on was a real bonus. A personal joy for me was to see the extraordinary Adam Mulvihill return after protracted injury. Who will forget two seasons ago, when Ronan and his lads started the climb, young Adam played every AIL game with excellence. Welcome back Adam! Matthew Blake and Jonathan Lynch also made contributions of importance including converting a difficult penalty in the last moments to deny UCD a losing bonus point. Howard moving to back row when Jamie came on, was very successful as he showed a natural proclivity for the position. The J1s are second now and looking good well done to Aaron and the team, also Eanna and the management of Darren and Garry. They and indeed other managements work hard and over winter they have to keep the gear in and retrieve it from the lock up cabins in the dark. It would be a great help if electricity could be connected.
Scores Four minutes a fine maul in the UCD 22 made it close and Strong Howard Noonan broke and scored. On 14 minutes UCD scored a try, 5-7. They scored two more converted tries before half time, 5-21 was half time score.
It was 48 minutes, second half, when a maul gave Marys a try from Conor Pierce, it was 12-21 after Aaron converted. Joe Nolan broke hard on 64 minutes, to score and it was 19-21.Another was added, after a brilliant break by Stephen Kennedy coming across from his wing to score a fine try for a winning bonus point, and finally the score went to 29-21 with that last minute penalty Final score 29-21.
Match Squad
15 A Dix, 14 S Kennedy, 13 E Carey, 12 P O’Beirne, 11 R Moore, 10 A O’Neill (Capt.), 9 S McGrath, 8 C Pierce, 7 J Nolan (VC) 6 D Lyons, 5 L Potts, 4 I Wickham, 3 K Quinn, 2 H Noonan, C Stewart, 16 J Harding, 17 A Mulvihill, 18 G Hassett, 19 J Lynch, 20 M Blake.
D O’Brien.