Having lost 5 games to a cumulative points margin of 14, Clontarf will be thanking the sporting gods for turning on the luck tap and spraying some in our direction on Saturday.
That is not to say that ‘Tarf weren’t worth their win; they clearly were, but when the old 80 minutes are rolling around and the opposition are within striking distance on the scoreboard and seemingly unerring in their penetration into your 22 it is hardly surprising that everyone in red and blue, both on and off the pitch start getting a dose of déjà vu and watery bowel.
As it transpired, Belvo behind by 3 with 5 to go won a penalty and a yellow for Adrian Darcy under the Tarf posts to go 24 all. Unfortunately, the thoughts of a bonus try to be delivered, at that stage by a dominant scrum, was too much for their composure. Despite shrill instructions from the side line to take the points, they opted to pack down and, unbelievably, conceded a penalty while trundling towards Ailesbury road at quite a lick.
Clontarf held on for the victory in a game more notable for errors from both teams conceding huge gobbets of territory than for scintillating play. To be accurate there were some flashes of brilliance from both teams with Steve Crosbie and Danny Riordan, not surprisingly, featuring for the home side in their final surge. Clontarf were delighted to have Mick McGrath back from Leinster duty and Max McFarland back from St Petersburg to give the backline some added menace. It took Max 2 minutes to show what we’ve been missing when after a mazy drift from the left wing towards the right he spotted some light between the Belvo centres and before you could say Vladivostok had zipped between them into capitalist freedom where he found comrade Darcy on the inside for a try under the posts. It was a thrilling start for the away support who celebrated brightly, but not quite as brightly as the elegant lady in the retro electric orange mock fur hat(with ear flaps) and matching supersize mittens. Possibly a present from Russia . . . ? Who knows!
Mick McGrath got on the score sheet after a sexy double switch (With back flip degree of difficulty 4.2) which added to his sterling work under the high ball. Matt Darcy ripped them up for a try also to put the shine on what was, for me, a man of the match performance. Matt has added some rough house defence at 12 to his unique cut and run style (some say he runs like someone trying to avoid a boot up the fundiment). He was the outstanding centre on the pitch. His partner Michael Brown, belying his age, added to a superb defensive effort with a break in the second half that included multiple ball transfers and multiple hand offs.
So its happy Christmas to all . . . fourth place with 8 games to play . . . Next up are St Marys on the 2nd January.