Adam Nolan

Old Wesley 32

Tallaght 1sts 17

Try: David Clarke, Adam Nolan, Ken McGovern
Con: Adam Nolan

Winters Cup
Donnybrook Stadium
30/03/2019

Tallaght took on Old Wesley in the Winters Cup in a re-match of last season’s Division 7 final. Before the match a minute’s silence was held in honour of Tallaght player Kevin Quinn’s mother Eileen, who sadly passed away on Wednesday. Wesley started the better and scored the first try of the match when their offloading game exposed Tallaght out wide. They converted the try to lead 5-0.

But Tallaght’s defensive lineout was good and it got them on the front foot. After Wesley conceded several penalties near their line, skipper Adam Nolan took a quick tap and passed to Sean Hanlon who spotted Dave Clarke in space and put him in for the try to make it 5-5. However Wesley took control of the rest of the half as Tallaght struggled with the home team’s high tempo offloading game. Wesley scored two more tries and converted one of them to lead 17-5 at half-time.

In the second half Wesley continued to score, getting the first two tries of the half to build a 27-5 lead. However Tallaght did play some decent rugby at times and they never gave up. Adam Nolan scored a try to make it 27-10. Wesley scored again but Tallaght had the last word with Ken McGovern going over for a try which Nolan converted to make the final score 32-17.

Tallaght coach Tom Leigh was disappointed to lose but pleased with aspects of his team’s performance. “First off, congratulations to Old Wesley. They were a good team last season and they’ve improved on that. It was good to see how we were able to compete with them and some of our attacking play was very good. However defensively we weren’t at the level required both in terms of individual tackles and our organisation. We need a good week’s training but if we can fix that, we’ll have a great chance in next week’s league final away to Seapoint.

Man of the match: Adam Nolan

Tallaght RFC

15. Simon Collie
14. Ciaran Keane
13. Padraig Jones
12. David Clarke
11. Rob Hudson
10. Daryl Keogh
9. Andrew Rudd

1. Alan Sower
2. Sean Hanlon
3. Andy Caswell
4. Joe Ivers
5. Colin Morrison
6. Daniel Pomares
7. Jack Russell
8. Adam Nolan (Captain)

Replacements:

16. Tony McManus
17. Andy Grace
18. Alan Moore
19. Ken McGovern
20. Aaron Shanahan
21. Luke Brady
22. Kevin Quinn

Report: Jim O’Connor
Photos: Anne Kavanagh