The word of the day on Saturday was composure. Firstly, the weather was so ugly I had to compose myself to get out of bed, never mind leave the house to watch a rugby match. Thankfully, the diehards from both clubs were rewarded by a break in the weather long enough to get a game in without anyone on the side-line dying from exposure.
In recent seasons ‘Tarf-Lansdowne games have been tight, fraught affairs, generally because both clubs are usually jostling for position towards the top of the league. On Saturday Lansdowne’s need was great because they were uncomfortably close to the bottom and, while there is a long way to go to the finish, when you are close to the edge of the relegation zone mistakes seem to take on catastrophic proportions. Particularly when you are on the wrong side of other peoples mistakes!
Clontarf started the game with real intent and it was clear that they had shaken off the sleeping sickness that plagued the team in the previous game v Galwegians. At 10 Joey Carbury ran the show beautifully against a hard up home defence. Unfortunately, we lacked composure at critical moments which led to umpteen chances lost to, iffy passing, overrunning the passer, and plain not passing when a clear overlap existed. We did go in at half time 17-6 up but it could have been and should have been much more. Highlight of the half: a greasy run by Joey C. which bamboozled the home defence and led to a perfectly timed pass for a score to Sam Cronin.
In the second Lansdowne came out energised and were rewarded with score to bring the game to 17-13. They tacked on another penalty to tighten it to 17-16 and the game was on. ‘Tarf added two more penalties to get out to 23 16 and the game moved to the closing stages and the expected big effort from the home side.
At this juncture I am happy to say that Lansdowne deserved to get a draw in this game. Their second half effort was worth it in that they took advantage of Tarf’s lack of killer punch in the first half. Also at this stage the ref had had a good game, nothing odd . . . and pretty consistent. Unfortunately, the contribution in the closing stages of the game was straight from the pages of a pantomime. Not unexpectedly, Lansdowne manufactured field position in the Clontarf 22 as the game moved into 5 minutes plus of injury time. Lansdowne have a noisy attack. Their team shouts louder than their supporters which can make the ref’s job very difficult at a critical time in the game. Every defensive tackle is greeted with screamed claims of infringement from the attackers. It takes an experienced ref with a cool head to sort the facts from the accusations and on Saturday, in the last two minutes, coolness and composure from the officials went up the spout.
This led to a veritable compendium of errors. Firstly, Aaron Dundon was erroneously red carded by the linesman for apparently throwing a punch after turning over possession on his own line, in injury time, defending a lead! Even the thought of that happening is bloody hilarious!! Then Tom Byrne was yellow carded for playing a live ball after forcing a knock on with a brilliant tackle under the posts. That is two refereeing errors in one play . . . And finally, ladies and gentlemen, a try to Lansdowne!! . . . Huzzah! . . . despite the clear fact that the ball hadn’t been grounded, confirmed also by the player involved who jumped up holding his head in despair at his error only to see blessed reprieve from the ref blowing for the score.
Thankfully the season is at mid stage and there was nothing more at stake than pride and pints. If that had been a relegation game there could have been a riot . . .
P.S. Aaron Dundon’s disciplinary hearing following the red card was, unexpectedly attended by the Lansdowne Team Manager, Stephen Rooney, who brought a tape of the incident which exonerated Aaron. His generous intervention resulted in the red card being rescinded. Not just a sporting, but a really classy gesture.