Tallaght 33
Try: Leön Tanfin, David Clarke, Alex Sadiku, Jordan Corrigan
Conversion: Rob Hudson 2
Penalty: Rob Hudson 3
Swords 12
Metro League Division 6
ALSAA sports complex
25/02/2024
Fifth placed Tallaght took on sixth place Swords in Metro Division 6. As the council once again mystifyingly declared the pitches in Tymon Park unplayable, Tallaght were forced to move the game to Swords.
Tallaght started well on a cold and windy day. Centre Luke Maher played a clever cross-field kick and Leön Tanfin collected the ball and raced away to score a fine try. Rob Hudson kicked the conversion to give Tallaght a 7-0 lead. Things got even better for Tallaght when out-half Dave Clarke charged down a kick, collected the ball and raced away to score to make it 12-0. Simon Collie almost scored a fantastic individual try when he ran a ball back and beat four defenders, only to lose his balance after the last attempted tackle.
Despite the windy conditions, Rob Hudson was having an excellent day with the boot and he kicked two long-range penalties to increase Tallaght’s lead to 18-0. There were a few late hits off the ball from a frustrated Swords team and it led to some unsavoury scuffles between the two sides. But Tallaght answered with another try as Hudson put his fellow winger Alex Sadiku away for an excellent score, which Hudson converted to make it 25-0 to Tallaght at half-time.
Former Tallaght captain and chairman Niall Mahon came on for Swords at half-time. He helped Swords gain a foothold in the game as they launched their big, experienced ball carrying forwards at Tallaght. They were rewarded when they scored a converted try to make it 25-7. Tallaght were struggling to regain their rhythm of the first half but Hudson kicked another important penalty to make it 28-7. With ten minutes to go Swords scored a try to make it 28-12. However that was as close as they got and number eight Jordan Corrigan broke away to score a fine try to cap an all action performance. It made the final score 33-12 and secured a fifth place finish for Tallaght in what has been a challenging season.
Tallaght head coach Adam Nolan was delighted to see his team get back to winning ways. “We were excellent in the first half and scored some fine tries to get a good lead. Swords make it a tighter, tougher game in the second half and we maybe could have played territory a little more. But we defended well and it was fitting for Jordan Corrigan to get the final score as he put in a massive shift on both sides of the ball and was man of the match. We’ve two league games left but both might not take place potentially depending on circumstances. So our focus is on the Winter’s Cup now and hopefully we can play this kind of positive rugby and really have a crack at it.”
Man of the match: Jordan Corrigan
Tallaght RFC
1. Alan Sower (Captain)
2. Brian Lacey
3. Sean Judd
4. Andrey Tsapenko
5. Patrik Toth
6. Mick Corrigan
7. Kevin Quinn
8. Jordan Corrigan
9. Luke Worrall
10. David Clarke
11. Rob Hudson
12. Daryl Keogh
13. Luke Maher
14. Alexsandro Sadiku
15. Simon Collie
16. Rosemar Alves
17. Sean Smyth
18. Leon Tanfin
19. Colin Morrison
20. Graham Timmins
21. Ciaran Rudd
Photos: Mark Luttrell
