TARF TAKE AIM AND SHOOT THEMSELVES IN THE FOOT!
03/11/2008
“The paper called it suicide
A bullet from a forty five
Nobody cared and nobody cried
Don’t that make you wanna Boogie!...........”

Thin Lizzy 1975


Buccaneers 20 Clontarf 18


Flat, flat, flat, flat, FLAT!

That was an awful long way to travel to see a game of TAG Rugby. You know the game played by girls and girly men that has no tackling!
I find it hard to identify anything positive in this Clontarf performance. I suppose I could say that we created four tries; unfortunately two of them were for the opposition so we won’t linger there.

This was a real pity because the team was developing real momentum after 4 out of 4 in the AIB League and was starting to motivate the Clontarf support who travelled in numbers and were left disappointed.
The game started with intent and despite giving the ball to the opposition we defended really well and put in some huge hits on the Buccs runners. As the game developed, however, the patterns of malaise started to appear. A constant stream of handling errors along with some uncharacteristic turnovers simply gave too much ball to the home side. Their first score came, when, after a good line out we inexplicably lost the ball in a maul in our own 22; one pass later we were standing under our own posts. Ben Reilly got in for a good score to add to a penalty by O’Shea and a drop goal by Pete O’Brien which left the score at 7 11 at half time.

The second half continued with keystones cops rugby. First ‘Tarf got in out wide after some good driving created a huge overlap. Then we messed a Buccs lineout only to fail to clean up the loose ball and the home number six, Kiripati, (of the Athlone Kiripati’s ) scooped it up and stormed in untouched from 40 yards.
That, plus a home penalty, left the game 17 18 to Tarf and when , with 10 to go we opted to maul in our own 22 AGAIN rather than clear the danger we left ourselves open to the counter and gave away the critical match winning penalty.

Sporting suicide.

Efforts to chase the game in the last 7 minutes simply produced another litany of bad options, spilled ball and dropped passes. Buccs held on to record a deserved victory and Clontarf went home feeling considerably more mortal than they did after the Young Munsters match. 

Rugby is a funny old game; you can be breathtakingly skilled and creative but if you do not set a secure foundation you will be found out. Clontarf never got to grips with the home forwards whose backrow, in particular, stayed the course for the full 80 minutes. Unable to get go forward ball Clontarf were left to try the expansive options with little space and paid the price in errors and turnovers.

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