Isn’t Mother Nature wonderful? The list goes on and on; The magnificence if the Hawaiian sunset, a murmuration of starlings at dusk, a tiger on the prowl or the majesty of the blue whale patrolling the world’s oceans.
And we also have the hippopotamus, the male hippo to be precise. Nature has given the male hippo a most endearing trait. To mark his territory against other males the hippo poops copiously and, if that wasn’t enough, he uses his fast flicking tail to fire his noxious expulsion all over his surrounds. He is natures slurry spreader and a very efficient one at that.
On Saturday, the rugby gods served us up a hippo of a match.
To be fair, the importance of the fixture, already tense because a cup plus league points were at stake, was ramped up further by the late KO, which meant both sides were aware of the other league results that day. News that joint leaders St. Marys, along with Terenure had both lost added to the sense of anticipation and jitters on and off the pitch.
The weather was also grim with a howling gale blowing diagonally from the Wingman van corner down to the left hand corner under the scoreboard. That meant most of the play was diagonally opposite to where the supporters were which gave the atmosphere a disjointed feel.
Clontarf started brightly, but were soon sucked down a dark alley by a combination of errors and penalties and some stonking defence from Hinch, who had done their homework and refused to allow Tarf build any rhythm by belting into every ruck. As the half wore on, simple tactics from the visitors plus gifts of penalties from Tarf saw Hinch go ahead with a kick and, after a penalty kick to the corner, they added to the lead, with a try after some grunt and shunt from their forwards. Another penalty took them to 0 13 before Tarf managed to apply some maul power and squeezed a penalty try, to bring the score to 7 13 which quickly became 7 16 as the home side infringed again.
Playing with the wind in the second half Tarf pressed the brutality button and began to grind the opposition down with their dominant scrum and aggressive defensive lineout. Pinned back by the wind, Hinch couldn’t get any controlled ball and with Tarf now on the right side of the penalties, the territory and possession battle swung to the home side. Hinch hung in gamely and frantic defence kept Tarf out, but there was a sense of inevitability and when, after a Hinch breakout resulted in another two scrum penalties to Tarf, the kick to the corner was carried forward and Alex Soroka refused to be denied for the try which was brilliantly converted into the wind by Con Kelly for 14 16.
That set the stage for the finish with Hinch, to their credit, defending like heroes, as Tarf threw the sink at their line for the last 15. With 5 to go Tarf got the winning score after a lineout maul was fouled at the away 22. The ball was put to the corner again and, at the resulting drive, Ivan Soroka joined his brother on the scoresheet and Tarf moved into the lead 21 16 with 3 to go.
There was time for excitement at the finish when the referee took exception to having a Hinch player thrown at him at a ruck. That brought Hinch into the home 22 for the first time in the second half, but great work from Dec Adamson forced a knock on and Hinch were penalised at the scrum to bring it to a close.
So, a messy game but a great day for Clontarf, as we head into the Christmas break 4 points clear at the top of the league. As confirmed by the pennants hanging behind the bar we are currently in possession of all three men’s All Ireland trophies; The AIL, The Bateman Cup and The Fraser McMullan Trophy. That is worth a moment’s pause and some thought at this time of year to the great personalities who have passed on from us but whose voices and laughter still echo around the old club and whose broad shoulders we relied upon to lift us to these heady heights.
Peter Walsh
Chronicler of scrums, storms, and all the beautiful chaos at Castle Avenue and beyond.
