Trinity hosted the world famous rugby academy of Stellenbosh University on Sunday on a beautiful late autumn day in College Park. The visitors boasted many South African U19s and U21s world champion players. Trinity came out with a very positive game plan and attacked their illustrious visitors off the kick off. They held the ball for the first five minutes of the game and should possibly have scored on a couple of occasions when opportunities presented themselves. Stellenbosh showed their athleticism by scrambling back and snuffing out any possible scores.

 

Stellenbosh then showed what was to be the story of the game which was a lesson in counter attack, when off a Trinity turnover in the Visitors 22 metre area, they moved the ball quickly wide, and burned the Trinity defence for a superb 90 metre try.

 

Five of the six Stellenbosh tries came from turnovers, four from loose kicks deep in their own half. The game was unique in the way that virtually the whole game was played in the visitors half! The broken field runners of the South Africans were a sight to behold.

 

In the second half Trinity played some fine continuity of their own and scored two well taken tries by Colm Coyle and Philip Rowe. They should possibly have scored two more with the amount of possession they had. Stellenbosh were aggressive at the point of contact and the game was very physical in all aspects.

 

This game was a tough but useful warm up for Trinity’s crucial home AIL game next week against Carlow. This will be the 1^st XVs last game before Christmas.

 

Trinity team; 15 Colm Coyle, 14 Philip Howard (Ronan Doherty 42), 13 George Byron, 12 Donal Crotty, 11 Shane Hanratty, 10 Johnny Watt, 9 Conor McShane, 1 David Rowe (Robert Dickson 35), 2 Matt Crockett, 3 Killian O’Neill, 4 Martin Garvey, 5 Darren O’Reilly, 6 Philip Rowe, 7 Richie Morrow (Matt D’Arcy 50), 8 Gregory Herrera (Peter McFeely 45)

 

Elsewhere in a difficult weekend for the club, With injuries mounting up through out the club at an all time high, Trinity 2nds lost only their second game of the season at home to Blackrock College 26-12 in an entertaining game. Blackrock proved too good on the day dominating possession and taking advantage of some Trinity errors out wide.  

 

Trinity U20s drew with Terenure College 18-18 in the shock of the day. Mid tableTerenure took the game to their opponents running out to a 15-6 lead. Trinity came back to totally dominate the second half and get themselves level with two tries. But chances were squandered as tries and penalties were missed and the students did not deserve to win missing so many opportunities. Hopefully this minor set back will be a reminder that the undefeated u20s cannot underestimate any opponent. The positive was that Trinity came back well, but they did not close the deal. UCD who Trinity defeated last week now move into first place in the league with five games to go in this very competitive league.

 

Trinity U20 Bs were the weekends only winners with a 44-18 away win at Blackrock College. The Bs are now back in their league and have a good opportunity to qualify for the play offs if they keep winning. The team played outstanding continuity rugby in the first half to lead 26-3

 

Trinity 3rds lost narrowly to Monkstown 10-6 at Santry in a game they should have won.