CLONTARF ROUT GALWEGIANS FOR HOME SEMI!
01/05/2006
Clontarf 32 Galwegians 6


The headline in the Sunday Tribune pretty much summed this game up… ‘ Clontarf fail to impress despite win’.
The reality is that this Clontarf team is being judged on the standards it set during a heady January when they ruthlessly demolished the pride of Munster club rugby with play out of rugby fantasy land. Since then the game plan has stuttered; injuries to key players plus a degree of nerves as the prize of a home semi approached seems to have introduced anxiety and with it a lack of precision in the key static areas of ‘Tarf’s game.
For the first half of the game on Saturday the lineout stumbled badly, our maul leaked the ball like a female turtle laying eggs and our backrow struggled to stop the Galwegians seven Muldoon flopping on every ruck like a corpse.
In the second half, after some adjustments, ‘Tarf got their patterns going and Galwegians lack of ambition was exposed.
Purdue opened the scoring after 5 minutes from a scrum near the Galwegians line. O’Shea added the convert for 7 0 plus a penalty 5 minutes later for 10 0.
After half time Tarf messed a Galwegians scrum on half way and in the confusion stole the loose ball; Peter O’Brien moved it wide quickly and winger O’Brien got around the defence to score near the posts for 17 0.
For the rest of the half Clontarf practised their maul and created three tries; one for Rob Sweeney , one for Purdue , and one for Darragh Ffrench. Galwegians replied with 6 points from a drop goal and a penalty for a final score of 32 6.

You know, we lost first place, the trophy and the medals to Garryowen by a Points differential of 18 points.

In the second half we were scoring almost at will. Had we performed with an ounce of that precision in the first half Galwegians would have been blown away by a cricket score. The reality was that they had no interest; their game plan was totally devoid of ambition. All of their backline moves were behind the gainline. They took a drop goal and a penalty when so far behind on points that neither was going to contribute to their quest to stay in Div 1.
For the record Clontarf scored 5 tries and finished the league section of the season with a record 13 bonus points. I don’t have the stats in front of me but I believe our try tally is somewhere close to 60 …that’s 4 tries per game…. an astonishing performance.
Next Saturday we welcome Cork Con to Castle Ave for the second time this season.
The match report for that game is on file but just to remind you we scored 3 tries that day and had at least 3 disallowed due to the positioning of an inexperienced referee.
Con, having won the AIL Cup, will be bristling with ambition to make Lansdowne rd to try and complete the double.
Clontarf, if they iron out the sloppy mistakes,clearly have the talent to overcome the Cork men. 

It will be another great day in the history of our little club ………..

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