St. Marys 20

Tallaght/Guinness Bistos 8
Tries: Mick Corrigan
Penalty: Fiachra Bray

Metro League Divison 7
Templeville Road
02/10/2026

The Tallaght/Guinness “Bistos” kicked off their Metro league Division 7 campaign on wet Friday night away to St Marys in Templeville Road. The Bistos are named after the late, great Phil “Bisto” Preston who played for both clubs with distinction.

The Bistos took the lead with a Fiachra Bray penalty but then suffered a blow when co-captain and out-half Daryl Maxwell had to retire due to injury. This caused a reshuffle in a backline already unfamiliar with each other. Though the heavy late afternoon rain had stopped by kick-off time, the pitch was still very wet. This meant the ball was very slippy and there was lots of knock-ons from both sides. Mary’s eventually got their power running game going though and scored three unconverted tries to lead 15-3 at half-time.

After a mistake from the opening kick-off in the second half, Mary’s got over for their fourth try of the match to take a 20-3 lead. At this stage it looked like the Bistos were in for a hiding, but they kept defending their line and Mary’s missed several chances to add to their score. The Bistos looked like they’d scored an intercept try when Ian O’Donoghue plucked the ball out of the air and sprinted eighty metres before being tackled close to the line. O’Donoghue reached over to touch the ball down but the referee disallowed the try for a double movement. Tallaght were conceding a lot of penalties and eventually Jonathan Murphy was shown a yellow card after one too many high tackles by his side.

But the Bistos kept on pressing and after strong carries from the likes of Eoghan Fitzpatrick and Finntan Price, Mick Corrigan forced his way over from close range. It made the score 20-8 and with time running out, Tallaght earned a scrum nearly the Mary’s line. A try would have earned them a losing bonus point but the pass went to ground and the chance was gone. Mary’s won 20-8 but the Bistos drew the second half 5-5 and they’ll regret not getting off to a better start in the first half.

Bistos co-Head Coach Ciaran Rudd was pleased with how his team reacted in the second half. “I’m happy with how we finished compared to other times when we might have let the game get away from us. Threre’s lots to take from it and work on with a relatively new group of players. I’m looking forward to the next game at home to DLSP in two weeks time.”

Assistant coach Nick McGuinness said ” We started slow but got going in the second half and came out level in the the second forty. There was some good interplay, we just need to start stronger next time.”

Man of the match: Daithi Mooney

Tallaght/Guinness Bistos

1. Jonathan Murphy
2. Karl Stafford (Co Captain)
3. Aaron Smith
4. Harry Ward
5. Eoghan Fitzpatrick
6. Finntan Price
7. Daithi Mooney
8. Mick Corrigan

9. Fiachra Bray
10. Daryl Maxwell (Co Captain)
11. Scott Walker
12. Luke Maher
13. Ian O’Donoghue
14. Conor Scanlon
15. Flavian Michon

16. Billy O’Hara
17. Brian Donnelly
18. Paul Callaghan
19. Dominik Shitek
20. Simon Collie