Trinity kicked off the New Year with a disappointing performance and result against a dogged Old Crescent team. After giving away an early penalty Trinity scored an excellent try when blindside flanker Alan Mathews ran 50 metres to score after Scott LaValla had won the ball at the restart.

 

Trinity’s game then deteriorated into a mass of unforced errors with either fumbles, poor kicking or unnecessary penalties. It is hard to win when a team is committing these mistakes multiple times.

 

Because of the errors Old Crescent were 26-7 up in only 18 minutes. Two tries and four penalties all scored from field position presented to them from the students. The Limerick team took their opportunities and were ruthless in doing so. Trinity came back to score a somewhat fortunate try by inside centre Richie Brady when the ball spilled in a tackle, he picked up and ran in from the half way line.

 

26-14 down at half time Trinity had a mountain to climb, but immediately surrendered another penalty. They came back with some positive rugby but tended to commit decision making errors at just at the wrong time in their attack. They closed the score to 29-20 but Old Crescent got a turnover in the middle of the field and ran in an uncontested try.

 

To their credit the students never gave up and attacked with everything they had. After some superb support play and continuity Richard Brady scored by the posts for out-half Dave Joyce to kick the conversion. Trinity continued to attack and gained a penalty in front of the posts with two minutes to go. Joyce duly slotted the points for a much needed bonus point.

 

This was an extremely “rusty” performance by the students who have worked hard over the five week break with mainly indoor sessions. The same, of course,  can be said for both teams. The students need to cut out their errors if they hope to be competitive next week at the RDS against high flying league leaders Lansdowne who are running away with the league, and are 14 pts ahead of second place.

 

Other news; Trinity U20s Premier XV won their first game in Blackrock College in several attempts 21-13. In a scrappy game Trinity’s physicality won out in the end with two tries to one, in another error ridden game after a six week hiatus. The win was important though in the Leinster “Super Six” tournament. Next week they host Clontarf U20s.