Carlow 38

Tallaght 21

Tries: Ian O’Donoghue, Raheel Hussain, Simon Collie
Conversions: Raheel Hussain 3

Metro League Division 8/9 Phase 1 Group B
Oak Park Road
1/11/2025

Tallaght took on Carlow in Metro League Division 8/9 Phase 1 Group B. Once again Tallaght were struggling for numbers and only had sixteen players to call on. 

It was a physical contest and it wasn’t long before Tallaght lost a player to injury when Rob Hudson left the field. Carlow played a direct style and scored two tries in quick succession to take a 14-0 lead. However Tallaght hit back and after some strong carries, Raheel Hussain put winger Ian O’Donoghue away to score his first try for the club. Hussain kicked a superb touchline conversion to make it 14-7. 

Unfortunately O’Donoghue suffered a broken collarbone shortly afterwards and everyone at Tallaght wishes Ian a speedy recovery. WIth no subs to come on, Tallaght had to play on with 14 men but they were still competitive. Raheel Hussain made a great break from his own half and showed great pace to race away to score a brilliant individual try. He converted his own try to make the half-time score 14 points a piece. 

Early in the second half Tallaght faced further injury woe when out-half Daryl Keogh was taken out by a late dangerous tackle. The Carlow player responsible was shown a yellow card but it wasn’t much of an advantage to Tallaght as they were now down to 13 players. Then Tallaght were down to 12 players when Hussain was shown a yellow card for a high tackle. 

With a three player advantage, Carlow finally took advantage of the extra space out wide to score four tries and converted two of them to make it 38-14. Tallaght kept fighting to the end though and a fine Hussain offload put Simon Collie in for a try. Hussain converted to make the final score 38-21 to Carlow. 

Player/coach Adam Nolan said he was once again proud of his team’s attitude in the circumstances. “We only had 16 players and then lost another 3 to injury. But we kept performing and scored some great tries. I couldn’t have asked for more effort from the lads. We have a huge game next week against the Emerald Warriors. We need to win and hope we get more points than Athy get in their game against Terenure to finish in the top three in the group and play for the Division 8 league. Again, we’re going to be struggling for numbers so we’re appealing to any players who can give us a dig out.”

Man of the match: Raheel Hussain

Tallaght RFC

1. Billy O’Hara
2. Kevin Quinn (Captain)
3. Brian Lacey
4. Alan Sower
5. Paul Callaghan
6. Daithi Mooney
7. Mick Corrigan
8. Colin Morrison

9. Evan Tyrrell
10. Daryl Maxwell
11. Eoin van der Kroght
12. Rob Hudson
13. Simon Collie 
14. Ian O’Donoghue
15. Raheel Hussain

16. Brian Donnolly