CLONTARF OVERCOME BALLYMENA
05/03/2007

Ballymena 6 Clontarf 36


Six tries and a winning margin of 30 points would seem to suggest that this was a sparkling attacking performance by the away side. They took their chances all right but it was a savage defensive performance that paved the way for the second half scores and a record victory over Ballymena on their home turf.
The day commenced with some of the local notables being delivered to the lunch in an elegant helicopter which touched down on the pitch to deliver its cargo. It arrived to collect them as Conal Keane lined up his sixth conversion attempt and at that point the helicopter wasn’t the only thing twirling because the Ballymena team had their heads spinning after a ruthless display of rock like defence by the Clontarf side.
The game opened well enough for the home team and they were full of intent; going wide early. In hindsight they may regret not using the stiff breeze to gain ground because Clontarf , after a slow start , took to the defensive task like a gang of African wild dogs defending their kill from a hyena. From 1 to 15 the away side defended heroically with O’Shea in particular putting in some timely belts to snuff out any threats out wide.
Ballymena opened the scoring with a penalty from their scrum half, Blake, and almost immediately Clontarf worked a lineout in a good position and Simon Crawford scored after an error by the home side. Darragh O’Shea capped his fine defensive performance with a cut through a weak tackle to go under the posts for 12 6 at half time.
In the second half Clontarf used the wind with some massive punts from Niall McNamara and Pete O’Brien which pinned Ballymena deep in their own half where their only option was to try and run the ball back. Needless to say this played into the hands of the Clontarf ‘Orcs’ who set about them forcing error after error and the tries flowed fairly regularly from the turnovers. For the record Derek Keane scored untouched when a good transfer from Conal Keane, who got emptied in the process, was moved wide by Johnny Wickham. Niall O’Brien scored during a moment of relief from his most recent bout of narcolepsy. Alan Trenier rounded off a super individual performance with a stormer and Magnus Coetzer finished off a period of keystone cops play with a try in the corner at the death.
So three games to go and we are in second place. Next up for ‘Tarf is a return to Lakelands and our friends Terenure. They were promoted from the second division this year, are safe from relegation, and have an outside chance of making the top four. This is not the first time Clontarf have travelled to Lakelands needing to get something from the game. I don't need to remind Clontarf members of an afternoon of tears and cheers a number of years ago when Clontarf won a match, made the points differential, avoided relegation , and added referee Alan Lewis' name permenantly to the club Christmas card list. I've been invited to the lunch as I was that fateful day. I'm looking forward to being able to swallow this time!

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