J1's BACK ON TRACK AFTER TOP OF TABLE CLASH
Author: David O'Siochain
2005-11-28
Following last week's disappointing defeat at the hands of St Mary’s the J1's faced table toppers Greystones in a crunch game at Dr Hickey Park on Sunday.

Scrum-half Daire Geraghty got the visitors of to a perfect start with a blistering blindside break from the base of the scrum touching down in the corner for the first points of the game. The Tarf pack continued to exert enormous pressure at scrum-time and began to dominate up front. Using the driving maul to devastating effect the Tarf pack released their backs with good front foot ball allowing the likes of Paul Mullen and Niall O'Brien to make huge inroads into the Stones defence.

The first half forward dominance resulted in tries for Mullen and O'Brien but the forwards also got in on the act when Daragh Ffrench worked his way over from a catch and drive. Greystones rallied and managed to get a converted try following an intercepted pass on the half way line.

With the wind in the second half the home side managed to curb the visitors scoring but after some good build up out-half Kev O’Dowd wriggled over for a try. After an injury to Mark Woods in the centre, Niall Carson was given an opportunity to show off his footballing skills in the backline, two minutes and several skip passes later he switched with Andy Cullen at No.8 and order was restored to the rugby universe. Cullen made an immediate impact bursting onto an exquisitely timed pass from lock replacement Dave O'Siochain splitting the defence before floating a pass to Niall O'Brien to score in the corner.

Final score GREYSTONES 12 TARF 35

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