Terrace Talk - Clontarf vs St. Mary's
15/04/2006

A huge Tarf crowd traipsed across the city to Templeville Road, and noted with interest that admission to AIL games in the Tallaght Area are EUR2 less than in the rolling seaside meadows of Clontarf.  But economics aside, the Village was well represented with three O'Siochains, two Balls, two Wood's, two Delaney's, a Lenny and a couple of Walsh's seen stalking the terrace.

The Tarf "Roar" travels well and the visiting supporters were as vociferous as always and were not slow to let the referee know that just because he was not in Castle Avenue his indiscretions would not be tolerated.  Three howlers in the first half were meet with such deafening clamours that the Mary's faithful offered, "Aren't you lot an awful bunch of moany so and so's." To which a visiting scamp was heard to reply, "Well its because of all the silverware we've won, it takes so long to clean it all." And the tone was set for the afternoon.

And so to the match, a ring rusty Tarf set out looking to maintain momentum and rack up their 12th bonus point of the season to keep Munster 's finest at bay.  Both of which they achieved.  This was never going to be easy as St Mary's, the original dry track worshippers, were presented with the most benign of afternoons on which to display their talents.

As the saying goes you can't do anything without the ball and Mary's dominated possession for the opening period of the game and came away with a well worked try.  This turned out to be the height of the home side's invention as the remainder of the game was dominated by Tarf endeavour and possession.

Andy "The Janitor" Wood was majestic at restarts sweeping up all floaters and providing the visitors with a steady stream of clean ball and this helped to provide the platform for Tarf's domination of possession.

A blistering chase from Niall O'Brien left the Mary's defence in tatters, which allowed Daragh "The Kid" O'Shea to capitalise and stroll over for a try, which he duly converted.

The Big Cheese chalked up number 11 of the season with a blistering try which came from Niall Carson's clever interplay with Ben Gissing at the front of the lineout before he brought out the cylindrical bosh and set up a ruck just short of the Mary's line.  The ball was flashed across the park and Hewitt skipped "The Kid" allowing Keane to cheese it over in the corner.

They say cheese should be taken as part of a healthy diet but for the Home side seconds was more than enough as Keane crossed the line again having picked the ball out of the heavens before thundering over in the corner.

It wasn't always pretty and it was a long way from being a cohesive polished display but the endeavour and adventure were never in question as Tarf attacked at every given opportunity.

When Breffni O'Donnell was forced to retire the stage was set for Jonny H to lend his weight to the cause.  And in the end, Hepworth was the difference, providing a touch of individual skill - dragging three defending out of position in the midfield, he drifted towards the touchline before straightening and releasing Niall O'Brien with a deft reverse pass.

Job done. 

 

 

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