TRINITY BEAT OXFORD!!
17/03/2007
Trinity 23pts Oxford University 20pts Trinity defeated Oxford for the second year running at Merrion Road on Saturday. This was a classic game of two halves as each team dominated play when playing with the wind in their favour. Trinity had first use of the wind and threw everything they had into attack. Everything seemed to work for the home team as they played some thrilling rugby using the full width of the field. The Trinity backs were on fire, as they ripped the Oxford defence time after time with some great back line moves and individual flair. Trinity opened the scoring in the fourth minute, when the backs moved the ball beautifully for full back Paul Gillespie to break the line and put wing George Byron in for his first try. Ten minutes later Paul Gillespie cut the Oxford line again, only to be caught underneath the Oxford posts by scrambling defence. The ball was quickly recycled and debutant Andy Dold quickly whipped the ball to out half Johnny Watt who put an unmarked George Byron in for his second try. Watt converted. Trinity kept up their high tempo attack and the massive Oxford team with 12 colours in their squad was clearly struggling to keep up. Freshman wing Charles Coyle also on debut was held up close to the Oxford line after another sweeping back line move. Trinity were not to be denied when off a line out, centre Conor Donohue was put through the ‘first up’ defence to run in from 45 metres for a well taken try. Trinity went close on several other occasions. When Oxford did get the ball Trinity’s defence smashed anything which tried to come through. Oxford did manage to score a well taken try by wing Boto. Johnny Watt kicked a penalty right on half time to give Trinity a 20-5 lead at half time. In the second half Oxford began to dominate field position and near total possession. Their massive pack began to rumble. Trinity defended as if their lives depended on it. Time and again Oxford attacks were visciously knocked back by the white line of Trinity. Trinity centres Brian Hastings and Conor Donohue hit everything which came up the middle and the back row of Ross Condren, Peter McFeely and Shane Young were particularly prominent as they stopped huge Oxford runners in their tracks. It was a great team effort on defence. Oxford did manage to score two tries and a penality in the second half to come back to 20-20. Trinity managed to get into the Oxford half kept possession and Oxford infringed. Johnny Watt kicked the long range penalty into the wind to give trinity the lead. Oxford came back, and was given a penalty which their captain Joe Roff (former Aussie great) decided to run instead of kicking for the draw. Trinity heroically kept them out for a great win. This was a great win for a young Trinity team. Oxford had an experienced team and had not been beaten in Dublin for ten years or more. Trinity showed great character showing both sides of their game, in the second half keeping the visitors at bay with tenacious tackling. In the first half they produced an outstanding display of running rugby. Team; 15 Paul Gillespie, 14 George Byron, 13 Brian Hastings, 12 Conor Donohue, 11 Charles Coyle, 10 Johnny Watt, 9 Andrew Dold (Eddie Hamilton 65), 1 Graham Murphy (Tristan Goodbody 55), 2 Ben Cunningham, 3 Andy King, 4 Roger Young (John Byrne 55), 5 Max Cantrell, 6 Shane Young, 7 Ross Condren, 8 Peter McFeely ( John Clark 78).

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