TRINITY GET CRUCIAL AWAY WIN!
29/10/2011

Corinthians 6pts – Trinity 9pts;

 

The Trinity rugby squad departed Nassau Street in nice bright dry conditions as they travelled west towards Galway.  The weather conditions unfortunately deteriorated into a typical west of Ireland winter’s day  - very wet and blustery wind. When they arrived in Tuam road they found an open exposed pitch with the wind blowing straight down the field and long grass. In the recent past Trinity do not tend to play well in these conditions. Added to these obstacles the waiting physical home team were undefeated and winning all their league games with ease. Trinity had a 2-1 record and needed to win to keep in touch with the early league leaders which included Corinthians. The weather would effect both teams as both like to play expansive rugby.

 

Trinity played with the strong wind at their backs and attacked hard with ball in hand with some good passing movements. They were held up in the first two minutes over the line after some strong running by centre Paddy Lavelle and #8 Jack Dilger, Captain Dave Joyce kicked a penalty to put his team in the lead. Another back line attack ended when wing Neil Hanratty skinned his man on an impressive run and was stopped just short of the line. The home team infringed and Joyce kicked another difficult penalty in the conditions. Both sets of forwards battled hard for possession, line out ball was a bit of a lottery and the scrums were messy as the front rows gave no quarter to their opposite men. Dave Joyce kicked another penalty right on half time.

 

9-0 up at half time felt like too small a lead for the students, in the teeth of such a strong wind. But they  kept possession with some magnificent ball control against a very big and aggressive home pack. As the second period progressed the home team could not get their hands on the ball. The score stayed at 9-0 for 25 minutes. Corinthians got on the scoreboard after a rare handling error by the students. They followed this with another 3 pointer just a few minutes later. With ten minutes to go, proceedings looked well poised for a tense finish, but the Trinity pack aided by very aggressive and enthusiastic backs kept the ball with great poise as the students narrowed their options to close out the game.

 

This was a good win for the students against a team that will most probably be at the top of the table when the end of the season comes around. They now face Old Crescent in College Park who are themselves having a good year losing only one league game all season.

 

Trinity XV, 15 James O’Donoghue, 14 Neil Hanratty (Ariel Robles 55), 13 Ciaran Wade, 12 Paddy Lavelle, 11 Niyi Adeolukan, 10 Dave Joyce, 9 Mick McLoughlin, 1 Ian Hirst, 2 Warren Larkin, 3 Paddy McCabe (Paul McFeely 25), 4 Colin MacDonnell, 5 Jack Kelly, 6 Colin Goode (Brendan O’Connell 70), 7 Dominic Gallagher, 8 Jack Dilger;

 

Other news – with the Bank Holiday weekend, all the other Trinity teams were off, with the exception of  the Trinity U21s Premier squad who travelled to Belfast to play in the Universities Conroy Cup. They beat hosts Queens University 14-0 and UCC 16-0 before losing to UCD 15-0 in 20 minute each way games.

 

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