Ste Heaney

Tallaght 2nds: 0

Barnhall: 0

Metro League Division 11
Ashbrook
29/02/2020

The Tallaght Men’s second team travelled to Coolmine after the pitch in Tymon Park was called off by the council yet again. Tallaght started well and looked to have scored a try early in the match but the referee disallowed it. Tallaght dominated the first half and nearly scored a try when Mark Keogh carried off the back of a scrum but the referee ruled he had put a foot in touch.

The wind and constant rain made playing attacking rugby very difficult but Tallaght didn’t do themselves any favours either with some very poor decision making. Too often players were guilty of carrying too high into the tackle leading to turnovers. When the backs did make a break they often chose to kick the ball away instead of looking for support and ended up just losing the ball.

The trend continued in the second half with Tallaght dominating. Mark Keogh came close to scoring a try again but this time the ball slipped for his hand as he put it down. Scrum-half Karl Segrave looked to be through for a try but he was stopped by a high tackle that really should have earned the Coolmine player a yellow card. Even when Coolmine did finally get a yellow card after a succession of high tackles Tallaght couldn’t take advantage and the game finished 0-0.

Tallaght manager Simon Gaskell was left frustrated by his side’s performance. “We haven’t played in about six weeks and there was some understandable rustiness. But even so that doesn’t excuse some of our decision-making when we got close to their line. We left about thirty points out there. We defended well against a big Coolmine pack which is a positive but we need to work on our attack. We now need to beat CYM next week to make the final so we’ll need to play a lot better than today but we’ll work hard in training this week to put things right.

Man of the match: Jordan Corrigan

Tallaght 2nds

1. Dave Kelly
2. Simon Gaskell
3. Shane Mooney
4. Padraig O’Ciadha
5. Patrik Toth
6. Sean Judd
7. Joe Ivers
8. James Carr
9. Karl Segrave
10. Ciaran Stewart
11. Brandon Wilson
12. Gavin McKeon
13. Jordan Corrigan
14. Michael Corrigan
15. Wayne Stewart
16. Mark Keogh
17. Tony O’Loughlin
18. Shane Maguire
19. Daniel Pomares
20. Brian Donnelly
21. Stephen Heaney

Report: Jim O’Connor
Photo: Anne Kavanagh