06/11/22

Metro League  Divison 1

JI Fixture v Trinity

37 – 24 BP Win

Four turns into five wins in a row for this JI team further building momentum as they maintain their lead of Metro League 1 by three points. This was a resolute performance without being spectacular at headquarters and most satisfying from the point of view that they gained another bonus point for four tries scored and won comfortably in the end.

The first half was a close affair with Landsdowne getting off to the perfect start with a penalty goal from Stephen Madigan. Trinity replied shortly after with a well worked try after their hooker broke through the Landsdowne cover to touch down.

The extras were added and straight back came Landsdowne with a period of pressure leading to a Tom Monaghan try with the extras also added. Again, Trinity struck back with the wind in their backs with a penalty to level 10 – 10 and then with a further try and extras to make the scoreline17 – 10 to them with 15 left in the half.

Again, Landsdowne maintained possession and built periods of pressure leading to penalties from Stephen Madigan which left the half time score at 17 – 16 to Trinity.

Turning around with the elements in their favour the Landsdowne scrum began to really dominate leading to a string of penalties gaining Landsdowne good field position and after a clever cross field kick from Madigan that legendary winger Dan McEvoy touched down after gathering the kick with the extras added to leave the score at 23 – 17. Once again Landsdowne upped the pressure and gained good field position leading to a further try from Luke Thompson with again Madigan slotting the extras.

The score line had moved to 30 – 17 a comfortable lead one would have thought but back came Trinity after a scrappy period of play and crossed for a converted try to leave the score line at 30 – 24.

With 10 minutes to go again Landsdowne knuckled down and with some carries especially from the outstanding no 8 Jamie Kavanagh away from his normal duties in the front row in fact it should be noted that the Landsdowne 8 was loaded with props five in total showing the flexibility of those players. It was one of these props Teddy Boland who touched down to stretch the lead again and finally suppress the opposition with a tricky touch liner landed again by Madigan to leave the score at 37 – 24.

The game finished with a bit of brilliance from McEvoy who with a reverse flip pass almost put Liam O’Sullivan over into corner only to be denied by a foot in touch. The final whistle was blown, and the win had been achieved by this momentum building team without ever playing to their full potential. Nevertheless, with the bonus points 5 points goes on the total and focus now turns to the next fixture a tricky away trip to Clontarf. That is all for now signing off more to follow next week.

Match Report – John Kilroy