U.C.D. 22

Tallaght R.F.C. 17

Tries: Simon Collie, Adam Nolan
Con: Morgan Farrell 2
Pen: Morgan Farrell

Metro League Division 7
Belfield
24/09/16

 

Tallaght started their league campaign with a narrow defeat away to UCD. Tallaght never got going in the first half and UCD weren’t great either in the wet conditions which saw a huge amount of knock-ons. Still, UCD managed to score two tries and a penalty to take a 17-0 lead at half-time. They didn’t do anything special for their scores, they just got their forwards rucking up phase after phase until the scores came. There were positives for Tallaght in the displays of flanker Jack Russell, who was masterful at the breakdown and Nigel Foster, who put in a serious shift in his first start for the club at tighthead prop.

Tallaght coach Tom Leigh was furious with the effort of his team in the first half and he demanded an improvement in the second half. It was slow in coming but with twenty minutes to go, substitute Rob Hudson finally provided Tallaght with the spark they needed when he took a loose kick and speed down the wing. He was tackled but got the ball away and it was worked to the try-scoring machine that is Simon Collie and he made no mistake to make it 17-7. Morgan Farrell added on the conversion. It got better again for Tallaght when a powerful Jack Russell carry earned a penalty which Farrell kicked to reduce the defecit to 17-10.

Tallaght kept on working though and Dave Clarke sold a dummy to fool the UCD defence and offloaded to second row Joe Ivers who had taken an excellent supporting line. Ivers showed superb composure to find the supporting Adam Nolan who rounded the last defender to touch down under the posts. Farrell kicked the conversion and Tallaght were level with ten minutes to go.

Tallaght had come back from the dead and had a real chance to win the game but it didn’t happen. Instead UCD took advantage of a bothced Tallaght scrum to get over the line for the winning try to win the game 22-17.

In truth, the losing bonus point was as much as Tallaght deserved. They waited nearly sixty minutes before they got their game going and when they did, they were sensational, but it was too late. They need to find a way themselves to get that spark into the game earlier.

 

Man of the match: Jack Russell

 

Tallaght RFC

15. Simon Collie
14. Gary Doyle
13. Ciaran Rudd
12. Dave Clarke
11. Gavin McKeon
10. Morgan Farrell
9. Andrew Rudd

8. Adam Nolan
7. Kevin Quinn
6. Jack Russell
5. Joe Ivers
4. Paul Cunningham
3. Nigel Foster
2. Simon Gaskell
1. Sean Judd

 

Replacements

 

16. Stephen Kelly
17. Liam Kenny
18. Karl Seagrave
19. Alan Sower
20. Andrew Rudd
21. Robert Hudson
22. A.N.Other (If they ever show up!)
Jim O’Connor ©