J3 XV — Season 2010/11

The first outing of the season for the J3's was a friendly against Lansdowne in Ballycorus on Friday night. The game was a good opportunity to get the rustiness out of the system, the first 40 minutes is best forgotten as Lansdowne were made to look like the All Blacks and finished the half 31-0 in the lead. The second half showed the true ability within our team and we outscored our opponents 12-0. There were improved performances in the second half and trys by Conor McGlade & Alex Mullin demonstrated what we can do. The result was meaningless but the performance was more important, we have reason to be optimistic and look forward to our first league match away to Barnhall this Sunday.

Parsonstown, Leixlip

The J3's kicked off their league campaign with a hard fought win over a tough Barnhall 15. Our opponents had a large strong pack who played to their strengths of 10 and occasionally 12 man rugby. St.Mary's took a 10 lead early in the first half through a penalty and conversion from Joe Norton and a well taken try from Ron Croker who ran in from 50 metres, however a driving mall from a lineout driven 20 metres by Barnhall resulted in them scoring a try and a well taken conversion made the score 10-7 at half time. The second half saw St.Mary's score two more converted try's from Niall Sheedy after a good off load from Brian Donnelly and an opportunist quick penalty tap saw David Williams scamper through a static Barnhall team looking at the referee as he dotted down under the posts. Barnhall did not give up the game and for long periods put us under severe pressure. This pressure culminated in us giving away numerous penalties and eventually the referee had had enough and sin binned on of our players, that 10 minutes showed what St.Mary's teams are made of, the defence on our line was strong and resolute and everyman put their body on the line to keep Barnhall out. The win was hard fought and we were rusty in some areas of the game and hard work needs to be done to improve our game but a win away to Barnhall is a good result, we now look forward to Suttonians this Friday at home.

Ruaidhri Moran

Templeville Road

Having had time to reflect on Friday nights game it is safe to say that we deserved our victory over a determined Suttonians team, the game was never allowed to flow and it was very much a stop start game with numerous penalties and lectures handed out which took the continuity out of the game and did not allow us to put enough phases of play together to dominate Sutton, for a not particularly niggling match 4 sin binnings (3 for us and 1 for Sutton) seemed a bit excessive. We scored three try's through David Williams, Brendan Shortt & Michael Craig and a penalty through Joe Norton. We played some good rugby in parts but butchered a number of chances to obtain a bonus point, but a win at home is a good result Our thoughts go out to Ronan Deegan of Suttonians who went off injured in the first half and was taken to hospital with a back injury, we all on the J3 and in St.Mary's RFC wish him a speedy recovery and hope he will be back playing rugby soon.

Ruaidhri Moran

Templeville Road

The J3 played their fourth league match of the season against DLSP. It was a hard fought victory against a dogged tough team who never gave up, it was a match that we should have won with a bonus point but failed to take the opportunity presented when our opposition received two yellow cards during the game. We went behind to a try in the first 10 minutes, try converted we came back into the game with a penalty by Joe Norton and a break by David Williams and good support play and try by Geoff Foley saw us take the lead and conversion completed saw us take a 10-7 lead, another penalty extended the lead to 13-7, DLSP came back and scored a penalty to make the half time score 13-10. The second half saw us go 16-10 ahead and hopefully kick on from there but that was not how it panned out as DLSP got back to within 3 points of drawing the match, we managed to finish with a victory after a hard fought second half where we kept DLSP out. We are now 4 from 4 but we now need to start gaining bonus points against weaker opposition to make head way into Lansdowne's lead at the top of the table.

Ruaidhri Moran

Templeville Road

Our first game of 2011 and the first in 4 weeks and only the fifth game played this season! But that aside we beat a strong Belvedere team with a bonus point, we were slow out of the blocks and found ourselves 6-0 down in the first 15 minutes and were lucky to be only down by 6 as we were slow to react to Belvederes attacks, once we woke up and put pressure on Belvedere we scored a well worked try by Paul Goodall and converted by Alan Dalton, after more good work by the pack Ciaran Lennon crashed over to make the score 12-6 to us, we switched off once more and Belvedere scored a very soft try due to poor tackling, 1-11 at half time, the second half was a different game all together as we score three tries through, Sean Preston, Mark Darby & Daire Horgan to clinch a well earned victory. Many thanks to Hugh Hogan and his U20 lads who played very well and scored 3 of our 5 tries. If it was not for their participation we would have struggled to put a team on the park.Final score was 31-11 to us.

Templeville Road

This was a clash of the top two teams in the J3 league, Lansdowne arrived to Templeville undefeated and full of confidence knowing that a win would almost certainly seal the league for them. St.Mary's also undefeated knew that only a victory would do to keep the league campaign alive. The game kicked off in teaming rain and for the first 20 minutes we dominated possession and territory, the pressure resulted in Lansdowne giving away penalties of which two were converted to put us 6-0 up and in full control of the game, it was at this point that we let the opposition back into the game with an easy penalty and an unconverted try, 8-6 down at half time with all to play for. The second half saw Lansdowne score another try which was converted and all of a sudden we were behind 15-6 with 20 minutes to go, we came back into the game with a well taken try by Ian Kelly and conversion by Alan Dalton, 15-13 and with two men in the sin bin we took our chance to win the game and our relentless pressure resulted in a well taken penalty to put us 16-15 ahead with 10 minutes to go, the last 10 minutes of the game saw St.Mary's exert considerable pressure on the opposition line and a series of pick and drives by the pack and a number of backs saw the time eaten away and we eventually kept Lansdowne in their 22 to win the game.

This was a fantastic win for the lads and all 20 players involved gave their all and did not take a backward step, injuries to player meant that we had at one stage a centre in second row and an outhalf playing wingforward. A true St.Mary's performance of heart, fight and no little amount of skill, the league is now up for grabs again and we intend to try and win it, next up is a tricky visit to Suttonians this Friday.

Ruaidhri Moran

Dunmore

Another victory for the J3 with a win over DLSP. We started of poorly by giving away a soft try and falling 5-0 behind, we picked up the pace and came back at DLSP and were rewarded for our efforts with a well taken penalty from Alan Dalton, more pressure yielded another penalty to put us 6-5 up. Our first try came courtesy of an intercept by Shane Timmons from a speculative reverse pass by the Salmo no.9. Conversion put the score at 13-5, a well taken try by Niall Sheedy put us 18-5 up at half time. Second half saw us score again and at the death Salmo scored a try to leave us 23-10 winners. Still undefeated but a lot of hard work still do to keep us in contention for the league.

Ruaidhri Moran

Dr Hickey Park, Greystones

A stormy night in Greystones is no place for the fainthearted, but we took to our task with great purpose. With a gale blowing down the middle of the pitch we elected to play with the hurricane. Obviously the play was in the Greystones half and we went about our job with ruthless efficiency and the first points came courtesy of a penalty from Niall Sheedy, the first try came soon after from a scrum won against the head Marc Aboud picked from the base and broke three tackles to score close in, try converted, 10-0 up in 10 minutes, the lads came back at Greystones and tries for Niall Sheedy, Ger Prunty and a second for Marc Aboud gave us the bonus point on 25 minutes a fifth try was scored before half time, the score at half time was 37-0. We turned into the gale in the second half with the aim of keeping the ball and not allowing Greystones a foothold in the game, that we achieved and more through a great display of controlled picking and driving around the fringes and keeping the ball from Greystones. That they only managed two tries in the second half shows what a performance was played by all those who started and the 4 subs who came on to play their part in sealing a good victory. There is still a lot of work still to do and we need to put this win behind us and concentrate on our next match which will be a tough encounter with NUIM Barnhall.

Ruaidhri Moran

Templeville Road

Last home match of the league campaign and a good bonus point win over a Greystones team that turn up with one prop! So uncontested scrums from the off which was disappointing and took away from the game. Two tries by Brendan Shortt and a try a piece for Ger Prunty and Paul Goodall secured the bonus point mid way through the second half and we saw off a determined Greestones effort to win 31-9. A few injuries was the only blight on the night and we now play Lansdowne on Friday in a winner takes all encounter to decide who wins the league.

Ruaidhri Moran

Lansdowne Road

The J3 league campaign came to conclusion on Friday night on the back patch in Lansdowne road. We went in to this game topping the table by 1 point over Lansdowne with the winner takes all final game, which in fact made it a league final.

The game started off with St.Mary's very much on the front foot and taking a 6-0 lead in the first 15 minutes thanks to a penalty and well taken drop goal from Alan Dalton`. However Lansdowne came back into this match and put us under enormous pressure and were camped in our 22 for the rest of the half. A well worked try off a scrum saw their centre score under the posts, which they converted to leave it 6-7 with 20 minutes gone, again Lansdowne had us pinned in our own half and were putting us under pressure through strong rucking and putting the ball through the hands of their pacey backs, but great tackling kept them out. An unfortunate injury to their centre saw the player break his leg and the game held up for 20 minutes on resumption they scored a copy cat try to leave the score 14-6 at half time.The second half saw St.Mary's take the imitative and put pressure on the Lansdowne line, but for a lucky intercept try by their no.10 put them 21-6 up. we regrouped and hammered back at Lansdowne again and were rewarded with a well taken try by Ian Kelly, 21-11, the game swung back in their favour and they scored their fourth try under the posts to leave the game at 28-11 going into the last quarter, The forwards put in some amazing work to get us back into the red zone where Ger Prunty scored our second try and the final score was 28-16 to Lansdowne and with that the league title was gone.

This was a game of immense skill, pace, ferocity and passion by both teams, no one took a backward step and gave their all, it was a tough way to loose the league with only won loss all season, but we move on and have the cup to look forward to in April. I am very proud of the way all the lads performed all season to get us this far in the league and I have every confidence that we can retain the Moran Cup. Thanks too to Rachel Doolin & Donal Swift for all their help with the conditioning & fitness training.

Ruaidhri Moran

Lansdowne Road

A month had past since our last match and we found ourselves once again on the back pitch of Lansdowne road in the semi final of the Moran Cup against Lansdowne. This time we aimed to atone for our league final defeat and retain the Moran Cup, alas this did not come to pass.

Our preparations were hindered by an injury to Alex Mullin in the warm up, so a we had to use one of our 5 substitutes to take his place which was not ideal. The game started as the last one with St.Mary's storming into a 10 nil lead with a try from Brendan Shortt and converted by Cathal Connolly who also scored a penalty from 45 metres. Then we suffered injuries to Simon Nagle who was incredibly brave in tackling their man mountain of a winger and Cathal Connolly in defending our line. So the entire back line was rejigged once more, but we got on with the game. Lansdowne were gifted three soft tries in the first half which left us 10-19 down at half time. We came back into the game and brought the scores back to 22-26 with 20 minutes to go, again lapses in concentration let Lansdowne back into the game and we found ourselves 36-27 down in the last 10 minutes and that is how the game ended and so to our season. Two defeats in 13 matches is a fine achievement but the team had set themselves a higher target then that and a sense of disappointment is what we all fell after a very hard season.

Personally there a number of people I would like to thank for their help this season, firstly Brian Young our captain who again led from the front and was ever present at training and games, all the members of the squad/team who trained, played and supported each other through out the season and put in a hugh amount of commitment into the J3's this year, the season would not have been as good and enjoyable without them, Donal Swift & Rachel Doolin who put the lads through their paces every Tuesday night and on the Thursday warm ups! by Rachel. Hugh Hogan and his U20's lads who played for us over the course of the season when we were short numbers, they were always glad to help out and did themselves and the U20's proud by their performances, this relationship with the U20's is vitally important for the club as it provides an introduction to junior rugby to the young stars of tomorrow and long my it last. The Shirley's and Mikey on the J2's who also provided support and players when required and were always willing help and finally Donal Joyce, Bobby O'Connor and John Ayling for their help during the season.

Ruaidhri Moran