This was an extremely disappointing result for the students who dominated the majority of their first AIBL game of the season. Trinity started strongly and were 17-3 up in as many minutes. Terenure former Leinster out half Dave McCallister coolly kicked a drop goal after an unforced error in the home teams 22. This gave Terenure possession which was the story of the game as the visitors took all the limited opportunities that came their way.

 

In a golden spell for the home team they came straight back and created two excellent tries when scrum half Michael Mcloughlin broke free to set up out half David Joyce to score in the corner. The game was being played at break neck speed and the home side were clearly getting the better of it. Next up was the second try from a ruck # 8 Scott LaValla burst through the defensive line sucking in the defence, the Trinity backs raced onto the ball, and wing Shane Hanratty rounded his man to score an excellent try.

 

Minutes later Terenure for only the second time in the entire first half infringed and Dave Joyce kicked a 35 metre penalty.

 

From this point on it seemed the bounce of the ball did not go for them. Trinity were constantly penalized for offensive penalties (when they had the ball). Terenure showed incredible discipline as they did not to give away any penalties under massive adversity throughout the game. Trinity however were penalized heavily for their transgressions. Dave McCallister kicked the points with no worries from everywhere.

 

Terenure to their credit from a scrum that had been driven back 180 degrees (its only allowed to go 90) were allowed to break out on the blind side and forced a scrambling penalty from the students. From this they scored their first half try after some good handling and support play. Terenure always looked dangerous on the break but never really got a foothold in the Trinity half.

 

17-16 at half time Terenure kicked another penalty and this was followed by another opportunistic try when they broke through some poor tackling by the home team. Suddenly the students were now down 16-17 with a hill to climb.

 

They took the game to their opponents but struggled to beat the scrambling visiting well organized defence. Joyce kicked another penalty to get the points within one score.

 

The last 20 minutes of the game was spent in the Terenure ‘22’ as Trinity went hunting for the ever-elusive winning try. Yet again they could not beat down the resilient ‘Nure’ defence with wave after wave of attack. It has to be said from the sideline observer, Terenure seemed to be constantly offside and off their feet but to their credit they managed to escape sanction from the referee.

 

Despite all this Trinity had their opportunities, they should have won the game but they spilled several good chances. If you don’t take your scores in this game you will not win, and this was a brutal lesson for the students.

 

When the referee blew his whistle for full time the Terenure players and supporters rejoiced in what was a fantastic win for them against the run of play.

 

Next week Trinity travel to Thomond who had a convincing win over Greystones on Saturday.