Friday January 25 2019

Clontarf 22 – 11 Lansdowne  J3’s

Another grim Friday night away from home for this group, as we just failed to ignite, allowing a strong-running Clontarf side in for three tries and offering a defence that was at best “leaky”.

Clontarf set out their stall straight from the kick off, with an early onslaught that yielded their first try on eight minutes.  We withstood more excellent straight-line running attacks and even clawed back six points from two John Delaney penalties, but ‘Tarf scored again just before the break, giving a half time score of 12 – 6.

The second half started if anything worse than the first had done with a series of fumbles landing us back on our own line and defending frantically. But the hosts scored once and then again within ten minutes. A penalty brought their tally to 22 – 6.  Finally, and with the help of some fresh energy from subs, Ludo, Pierre, and home-grown Mulley and Mick Fitzgerald, we started to play the way we know we can.  The other notable performance for the whole 80 minutes was Thomas “Toss” Costello, who showed tenacity and leadership beyond his years.

With less than ten minutes to go we worked our way up the pitch we won a line out on their 22 and worked Phil’s “Pods” to perfection, leading to a text book try in the corner by Pierre Poulard.

If anything, the calm and clinical execution of our solitary try served only to heighten the frustration of the evening … to paraphrase Van the Man:   “Wouldn’t it be great if we played like that all the time?

Match Report: Brian Whelan