CLONTARF WIN UGLY
23/10/2006
Clontarf 19 Lansdowne 10


Clontarf registered their first victory of the AIL campaign last Saturday and in accounting for their Dublin 4 rivals barely lifted their game beyond 60% of their capability. Lansdowne came to Castle Ave with game plan based around matching the ‘Tarf eight in the tight and expended a lot of energy pursuing their plan. The consequence, unfortunately for them, was that they had little left in the tank to do much more.
Clontarf dealt with the fronty southsiders quite well but are still suffering from an early season malaise which saw them take 30 minutes to get going in Cork and in Castle Ave on Saturday infected their play with some uncharacteristic handling errors and an early season lack of rhythm which drove their supporters insane.
Lansdowne opened the scoring with a penalty after ‘Tarf were caught offside at a ruck. The home side responded with a well orchestrated maul that put Quinn in for the score in the corner. O’Shea added a towering conversion fo r 7 3. Lansdowne lifted themselves almost immediately, stole a ‘Tarf lineout, and after a number of mauls were repelled, moved the ball left and scored after two passes. Then ‘Tarf started rumbling and Peter O’Brien marked his return to 10 with a drop goal to level the scores. Shortly after a Lansdowne overthrow was gathered by Quinn who put Purdue down the middle on a storming run , Lansdowne had no option but to kill the ball and O’Shea popped the penalty from in front of the posts. He added another beauty before the break for 16 10 to ‘Tarf at half time.
The second half was ……well …. ‘A curates egg’ …. Good in parts.
‘Tarf manufactured two scores, one was reversed for foul play and one was squandered by a pass to ground with the line open. Either one of those scores would have killed off Lansdowne and opened the possibility of a bonus. Unfortunately, it wasn’t to be and the rest of the turgid second half was like watching blind men playing basketball!; error after error from both sides. We had to wait for the last kick of the game for 19 10 and some relief from the agony.

Congrats to Daragh O’Shea who kicked flawlessly from hand and tee, to Simon Crawford who pounded Lansdowne around the park, to Fiach O’Loughlin who never wilted in the heat around the rucks and tackled like a tiger all day, to Pete O’Brien and Niall McNamara who put in superb kicks to ease the pressure when required.

Next week we travel to Thomond to meet UL Bohs on Sunday 29th.

According to Saturday’s Ref we haven’t a chance ….. That’s gas isn’t it?

On Sunday the J1’s travelled to Anglesey Rd and took on Old B in a classic rugby match. They lost 34 32 to a last minute drop goal, scored four great tries and managed , therefore, to come away with two bonus points.
More importantly they took on a big Belvo team and matched them due to superior technique and no small amount of guts. This is a great young side. Well worth watching.

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