Clontarf rediscovered their cutting edge in Belfield, running in eight tries to secure a 28-48 victory over UCD in an entertaining, high-tempo contest.
The rule of three in psychology supposes that the brain recognises patterns easier in threes. So therefore we have three little pigs, three coins in the fountain and in speech we have Pearse’s famous “The fools, the fools, the fools” or Lincoln’s “ Of the people, by the people, for the people” …… and in sport we have three strikes and you’re out or even kids playing 3 and you’re in, with a soccer ball and jumpers thrown down for goals.
I only raise this because the power of three was on show on Saturday in Belfield. Dylan scored three tries, not to be outdone Con hit the post three times, with conversion attempts and Ivan detonated a three kiloton thermonuclear device in the away dugout which cleared the bench, scorched the pitch, and set off house alarms on the Clonskeagh Road.
The game was a twitchy affair. UCD are unfortunate victims of their successful recruitment and scholarship programme, which left their AIL side without a substantial heft of Irish under 20’s, as many were involved with the recent heroic win against England in Bath and remain unavailable to their club.
Without their heavyweights, they were dealt a hard defeat in Limerick and faced into a Clontarf team smarting from two defeats on the bounce and in no mood to be merciful.
The game reminded me of a swarm of honeybees desperately trying to protect their hive from a hungry bear. Valiant but doomed defiance.
The home tactics of speed ball involve trickery at the lineout to secure ball, channel one in your scrum to get it away, frenzy at the breakdown to, hopefully, confuse the ref, and a wide game that had loads of “close your eyes” and fire it all over it.
That leads to plenty of excitement on the sideline and heart stopping hits on the pitch, as width is met by defensive resolve. Clontarf’s tactics were, as usual, based on set piece dominance. Win a scrum, win a penalty at the scrum, kick to the corner, maul over for a score. And that worked well… three times!!
There were flashes of liveliness as well though. Connor Fahy must be in there for the fastest try in the AIL. UCD kicked off, Peter Maher fielded beautifully, Con received at depth from Charlie Ward and his skip pass put Fahy outside his man and none of the defenders were ready to injure themselves trying to stop him.
Peter Maher got a beauty after a probe up the blindside by Fahy put him free. His kick ahead was weighted perfectly and he regathered to score by the posts. Dylan O’Grady gets the prize for the “showoffyest” try with a break through the home defence, followed by an outrageous burst of pace which took him around the secondary defenders and in at the corner.
Niall Smyth got in as well after another superb run by Maher and Paul Deeney got an ugly 5 pointer to round it all off.
Credit to UCD who had a plan and tried to work it against insurmountable odds. They were braver than brave. In the end they scored four tries for a bonus point and in doing so sent a message to the visitors that they still have work to do.
Next week we have our friends , Romans , and countrymen back to Castle Avenue for the first time in years. Old B are on the way! It will be like a papal visit !!!
Peter Walsh
Chronicler of scrums, storms, and all the beautiful chaos at Castle Avenue and beyond.
