Tallaght 1sts: 10
Try: Andy Rudd
Con: Rob Hudson
Pen: Rob Hudson
Terenure 8
Metro League Division 6
Tymon Park
18/01/2020
The Tallaght men’s first team took on local rivals Terenure in Metro League Division 6. Tallaght had taken top spot in the table last week from Terenure by beating Seapoint and they were looking to keep it. Terenure had the best of the first twenty minutes though as Tallaght gave away several penalties. Eventually Terenure took advantage when they kicked a penalty to take a 3-0 lead.
Tallaght’s lineout was struggling and Terenure were competing smartly at the breakdown. It meant Tallaght couldn’t get any platform to launch their dangerous backline. The likes of Denny McCarthy and Adam Nolan made some good individual runs but ultimately they didn’t lead to scores. Eventually Tallaght did score off a great individual moment. After a good run by Kevin Quinn put Tallaght close to the Terenure twenty two line, scrum-half Andy Rudd made a great break from the ruck. He broke one tackle and then wriggled his way out of a second one before stepping the full back to score a great try under the posts. Rob Hudson converted to make it 7-3 to Tallaght.
The try gave Tallaght some confidence and now Terenure were the ones giving away penalties. Twice Terenure gave away kickable penalties but Tallaght decided against going for the posts and instead kicked for a lineout. However on both occasions the lineout was botched and the half-time score remained at 7-3 even with Terenure down a man through a yellow card. In the second half Tallaght kept putting themselves in good territory through the excellent tactical kicking of Denny McCarthy. However they couldn’t translate that territory into a score to ease the nerves.
They weren’t helped when centre Padhraig Jones was show a yellow card for reacting off the ball. The Tallaght defence managed to see out the ten minutes Jones was gone however and the centre made amends with a smashing tackle to put a Terenure player out of touch to stop an attack. Terenure weren’t giving up however and from a lineout maul they managed to run forty metres up the field as the Tallaght pack were in disarray. Tallaght eventually collapsed the maul to concede a penalty that Terenure unwisely quick-tapped allowing Tallaght to tackle them out of touch. However Tallaght’s lineout malfunctioned again and Terenure were able to regain possession and force their way over for a try to make it 8-7 to the visitors with only a couple of minutes of added on time remaining.
However Tallaght didn’t panic and kicked their way into the Terenure half through McCarthy. They eventually won a scrum near the Terenure twenty two and when the ball went wide to the wing Terenure conceded a penalty. It was a tough kick wide on the right but Hudson nailed it to win Tallaght the game with a final score of 10-8.
Tallaght coach Tom Leigh was pleased to win but wasn’t happy with the performance. “First, I want to commend the character of the side. After conceding the try we challenged the team to get back up the pitch for winning score and Rob Hudson showed real bottle to convert the kick. But the players know the performance was way off our normal standard and were honest enough to admit that afterwards. We now have a huge game next week against Coolmine who have won their last three games to move up to second place in the table. We have a massive week ahead in training to put the issues we identified today right.”
Man of the match: Denny McCarthy
Tallaght RFC
1. Tony McManus
2. Ken McGovern
3. Andy Grace
4. Alan Moore
5. Alan Sower
6. Jack Russell
7. Kevin Quinn
8. Adam Nolan (Captain)
9. Andrew Rudd
10. David Clarke
11. Karl Segrave
12. Denny McCarthy
13. Padhraig Jones
14. Rob Hudson
15. Ciaran Rudd
16. Andy Caswell
17. James Carr
18. Scott Hyland
19. Pádraig Ó Ciardha
20. Nick McGuinness
21. Daryl Keogh
22. Aaron Shanahan
Report: Jim O’Connor
Photos: Ava Tyrrell