Seapoint 41

Tallaght 17
Try: Raheel Hussain
Pens: Rob Hudson 4

Metro League Division 6
Kilbogget Park
28/09/2024

Tallaght took on Seapoint in their first Metro 6 league game of the season in Kilbogget park.

Tallaght suffered a blow before the match even started when back row Fintan Price rolled his ankle in the warm-up. This necessitated a reshuffle in the pack. Seapoint scored an early try but didn’t convert. Tallaght hit back off some strong carries by Darragh Hosey and Brian Lacey. This earned a penalty which Rob Hudson kicked to make it 5-3. 

The rest of the half followed the same pattern. Seapoint scored two more tries and converted one of them but Tallaght kept in touch with three more Hudson penalties to leave the halftime score at 17-12 to Seapoint. 

In the second half though, Seapoint’s massive ball carriers started to get on top. They scored two more tries and converted one to take a 29-12 lead. Tallaght’s cause wasn’t helped by a yellow card for back row Darragh Hosey for a no arms tackle. Hosey is raw and has a lot to learn about the game, but he was massively physical in both attack and defence and looks an exciting prospect. 

Tallaght hit back with some strong carries by Kevin Quinn, Sean Judd and Adam Nolan. Eventually Rob Hudson flung a fine pass out wide and Raheel Hussain went in for the try to make it 29-17. For a moment Tallaght thought they were back with a chance but Seapoint ruthlessly shut this down with two more excellent tries to make the final score 41-17 to the home team. 

Tallaght head coach Adam Nolan was disappointed with the result but saw some positives:

“It was a tough day at the office but also a clear improvement from two weeks ago. Seapoint is always a tough place to go and we lost some bodies in the build up and also Finn in the warm up, and we wish Finn a speedy recovery. We played well in spells and were possibly unlucky not to get some extra scores but ultimately Seapoint had too much for us. We need to address our physical side of the game as the moment as we aren’t fronting up in the contact and we all know we can’t win games this way. We will learn from this and move onto our next game in two weeks. There is plenty of work to do but for the inexperienced squad, we will only move forward”.

Man of the match: Craig O’Brien

Tallaght RFC

1. Brian Lacey
2. Kevin Quinn
3. Adam Nolan
4. Sean Judd
5. Patrik Toth
6. Luke Brady Deegan
7. Liam Molloy
8. Darragh Hosey
9. Nick McGuinness
10. David Clarke (Captain)
11. Felix McCabe
12. Craig O’Brien
13. Daryl Keogh
14. Rob Hudson
15. Ruari O’Donoghue
16. Pietro Pagliara
17. Brian Donnelly
18. Raheel Hussain
19. Luke Worrall

Photos: Mark Luttrell