Terenure 24
Tallaght 37
Tries: Raheel Hussain, Kevin Quinn, Simon Collie 3
Conversions: Rob Hudson 3
Penalties: Rob Hudson 2
Metro League Division 8/9 Phase 1 Group B
Tymon Park
11/10/2025
Tallaght took on Terenure in their first away league game of the season.
It only took Terenure a couple of minutes to open the scoring. Tallaght unwisely tried to run the ball out of their own twenty two. It was turned over and Terenure’s powerful number eight Kelvin Oko went over from close range to score a converted try to make it 7-0 to the home side. Tallaght hit back strongly though and left wing Raheel Hussain, who was beating defenders for fun with his footwork, started the move with a fine break. He passed to Rob Hudson and took a return pass from him to score an excellent try. Hudson kicked the conversion to tie the scores at seven points all. But Terenure hit back when Kelvin Oko scored his second try of the match to take a 14-7 lead.
Tallaght then suffered a blow when they lost captain Nick McGuinness to injury, forcing a reshuffle in the backline. Rob Hudson kicked a long range penalty to reduce the deficit to 14-10. But Terenure scored a third converted try to lead 21-10. Hudson kicked another penalty for Tallaght but Terenure hit with one of their own to make it 24-13 to Terenure approaching half-time.
With the last play of the first half, Terenure had another long-range penalty to increase their lead to fourteen points. However it drifted wide and Tallaght could have kicked the ball out to end the half. Instead they kicked it long and Terenure ran it back but conceded a penalty at the breakdown. Tallaght kicked to the corner and after big carries from Jordan Corrigan and Billy O’Hara, Kevin Quinn scored a try in the corner to make it 24-18 at halftime.
Early in the second half, Terenure were shown a red card for a tip tackle on Ruairi O’Donoghue. Tallaght legend Simon Collie came on at halftime and turned back the clock with a vintage try from distance to make it 24-23. Then scrum-half Evan Tyrrell made an excellent blindside break and nearly scored himself but the ball was worked back to Simon Collie who scored his second try. Rob Hudson converted to give Tallaght the lead for the first time at 30-24.
There were ten minutes left and after Tallaght conceded a lot of penalties, the referee lost patience and Mick Corrigan was shown a yellow card. But Tallaght made the game safe when Daryl Maxwell made an excellent break and offloaded superbly to Collie who completed his hat-trick of tries. Hudson converted to make the final score 37-24 to Tallaght to give them their first win of the season.
Player/coach Adam Nolan said he was proud of his team’s ability to stay in the fight. “The lads produced a fantastic performance. It was another game where we were slow to get going and we were 21-10 down. But again this group showed fantastic fight and a never give-up attitude to turn it around and win 37-24! We lost some important players to injury but the whole squad showed spirit that any team would be proud of. It was possibly one of the best performances I’ve seen from this team in my time in charge.”
“It was a really tough choice to pick a man of the match today. Raheel Hussain and Evan Tyrrell created so much in attack. Jonah Hurley was everywhere again in both attack and defence and Kev Quinn was brilliant in the loose and he threw superbly in the lineout too. But Simon Collie scored a hat-trick of tries and that gets him the nod. We can’t wait until next week when we take on the Dogos at home with a slightly earlier kick-off time of 1pm.”
Man of the match: Simon Collie
Tallaght RFC
1. Billy O’Hara
2. Kevin Quinn
3. Alan Sower
4. Daithi Mooney
5. Graham Timmins
6. Mick Corrigan
7. Jonah Hurley
8. Jordan Corrigan
9. Evan Tyrrell
10. Nic McGuinness (Captain)
11. Raheel Hussain
12. Craig O’Brien
13. Darragh O’Donoghue
14. Rob Hudson
15. Ruairi O’Donoghue
16. Adam Nolan
17. Antonio Cunha
18. Daryl Maxwell
19. Ian O’Donoghue
20. Simon Collie