St Mary’s College RFC J1 V Terenure College RFC J1
23 29
Metro League 1
Templeville Road
Sunday 27th November 2022.
Overall
Sunday afternoon at St Marys College RFC always spreads a feeling of warm family welcome and so it was today. There was a remarkable number of supporters and casual spectators for this exciting J1 game, on the roadside pitch. Of course it was Marys V Nure, so that was no doubt, some of the reason.
Good to relate, there was considerable improvement in performance by the home team, although the game generally was somewhat of a helter-skelter nature with errors on both sides. But it was played at pace with adventure and lots of individual skills.
For St Marys, Aaron O’Neill, coming back from injury, stood out, putting some good control on the game, kicking well and with perceptive passing. Whether at senior or J1 level two players who always perform above par are Niall Hurley and Joe Nolan. They did again today and were well supported by Gavin Potts. Niall had played a good part of the senior game yesterday. Andrew Walsh had also played his part in the senior game and another who had played yesterday and turned out, was Harry MacDonald; it was clear he was not well, but did not want to let the side down. The midfield of Max Whelan and Eoin Carey worked well together as they had in their last outing. The lineout was strong with Ian Wickham getting back to his best. We had difficulty dealing with the Nure maul; they had a big pack. However in most aspects of play we matched them well. They are leading the league which they won last season. The two bonus points were well earned today, and put us five points ahead of Barnhall who are bottom of Metro League 1.
We scored four tries and one penalty. Our second try was the best of them, coming from a deft cross- kick that was exceptionally well taken by promising winger Luke Bryan, in the corner.
The first half Nure scored four tries with two converted, to two non-converted tries by the home side, 10-24.
The second half, Marys increased the pace and skill level to close the gap to 15-24. Nearing the end the visitors stretched it with another non converted try, but a strong determined finish with a forward try and a penalty made the final score 23-29. A fair result.
Sean and Darren who work hard with this group will have been heartened by the improvement and face the remainder of the league campaign with a fair degree of optimism.
D O’Brien
Team 15, G Monaghan, 14 L Bryan, 13 E Carey, 12 M Whelan, 11 H Lane, 10 A O’Neill, 9 A Walsh, 8 N Hurley, 7 J Nolan, 6 G Potts, 5 H MacDonald, 4 I Wickham, 3 C McElearney,2 B Hamilton, 1 D Lyons; J Coolican A Christie, D Sloan, L Moore.