Rob Hudson

Clondalkin 6

Tallaght 1sts 21

Tries: Rob Hudson 2
Con: Rob Hudson
Pen: Rob Hudson 3

Metro League Division 7
Kingswood
13/10/2018

After their opening league fixture of the season was conceded by Navan, Tallaght finally got to take the field for the first time in the league this season awaY to local rivals Clondalkin. On a day of constant rain in Kingswood it was tough to play attacking rugby but the home side started well and took a 3-0 lead with a long range penalty. However it wasn’t long before Tallaght full back Rob Hudson levelled the scores with a penalty of his own.

Then from a crossfield kick from Clondalkin the home winger just missed the ball but instead Hudson took the ball just inside his own half. He took off and showed great pace to score in the corner to give Tallaght an 8-3 lead. He extended the Tallaght lead with another penalty to make it 11-3 and Clondalkin lost a man after one of their forwards was given a yellow card for leading with the forearm. Tallaght’s pack were exerting pressure in the lineout through Joe Ivers and Colin Morrison and they were carrying strongly through Ken McGovern and Andy Grace. Skipper Adam Nolan was also kicking very intelligently to put his team in good field positions.

Tallaght won a lineout in the Clondalkin twenty two and after a decent maul the ball went wide and Dave Clarke, Padhraig Jones and Simon Collie showed great handling skills in the conditions to put Rob Hudson through the gap for his second try of the match. Hudson converted his own try and Tallaght led 18-3 at half-time.

As the rain worsened the second half was an extremely scrappy affair with countless handling errors. Tallaght should have had another try when Tony McManus kicked though under the Clondalkin posts. But in a moment of high comedy Jack Russell was ahead of McManus as he kicked it and couldn’t resist catching the ball which meant an immediate penalty for Clondalkin and no try. Tallaght really should have sealed the game with another try but they wasted numerous chances and in the end the only scores in the second half was a penalty from each team’s kicker to make the final score 21-6 to Tallaght.

Tallaght coach Tom Leigh was happy enough to get the win. “It was a challenging game for a number of reasons. It was a local derby, it was lashing rain and we hadn’t played a game in four weeks. So in the circumstances I was delighted with the win and the performance. We kept our cool and got the scores at the right time through Rob Hudson who was outstanding for us today. We said before the game how important the squad would be today and every single one of the lads who came in off the bench made a great impact to help us see the game out. We now need to focus on Clontarf next week which we know will require a step up in performance from today.”

Man of the match: Rob Hudson

Tallaght RFC

15. Rob Hudson
14. Ciaran Keane
13. Simon Collie
12. Padhraig Jones
11. Karl Segrave
10. David Clarke
9. Andrew Rudd

1. Tony McManus
2. Ken McGovern
3. Andrew Grace
4. Colin Morrison
5. Joe Ivers
6. Daniel Pomares
7. Alan Sower
8. Adam Nolan (Captain)

Substitute Positions

16. Alan Moore
17. Andrew Caswell
18. Kevin Quinn
19. Daryl Keogh
20. Jack Russell

Report: Jim O’Connor
Photo: Anne Kavanagh