TRINITY AND UCD SHARE THE POINTS!

Trinity 23pts  UCD 23pts; October 13th2018

 

Trinity had another excruciatingly close game in their second AIL match of the season on a very wet day in College Park. For the second week running Trinity took the game to their opponent, but just came up short of a deserved win.

 

Right from the kick off Trinity played with high tempo backed with high intent. Aided by the conditions, the UCD defence for the most part were however up to the task.

 

For their early pressure Trinity were rewarded with two penalties that  out half James Fennelly duly kicked. The home team was well in command as the visitors struggled to get their hands on the ball.

 

The eventual error came and UCD took full advantage to score from some sustained pressure on the Trinity line.

 

Trinity came straight back and, after some enterprising play, Fennelly put a cross kick in for his Captain Colm Hogan to control with his feet before gathering and running away from the defence to score under the posts. UCD came back with a penalty just before half time, to close the score to 13-10.

 

The second half was much the same as the first. The Belfield outfit had more ball and their big forwards always looked dangerous when in close to the Trinity line.

 

It was midway through the first half when the home team pulled off a magnificent power play to score under the posts. Full back Rob Russell made the initial break before Belgian born prop Bart Vermeulen got up to support and score his first 1stXV try.

 

Trinity continued to attack, but turned ball over at inopportune times when the UCD line beckoned. UCD got back into the game when Trinity prop Vermeulen turned from hero to villain when he was judged to have ‘tip tackled’ an opponent and had to spend 10 minutes in the bin. UCD kicked a penalty for the transgression. A few minutes later, after a mix up on the Trinity line which featured the referee as well, Trinity failed to clear the ball. UCD were over again when from a line out in close they were stopped and then several charges at the line later were rewarded with a try.

 

True to the spirit in this Trinity team, they came back and gained a penalty on the last play of the game. Full back Rob Russell who had been cracking kicks from his own half in training, just missed the posts from 50 metres out.

 

A tough draw for the City Centre University, but the young squad are learning the hard way in this league. Next week they travel to early league leaders Cork Con in what will be the biggest challenge of the season so far.

 

15 Rob Russell, 14 Hugh Twomey, 13 James Hickey, 12 Phil Murphy, 11 Colm Hogan, 10 James Fennelly, 9 Rowan Osborne, 1 Bart Vermeulen, 2 Joe Horan, 3 Dylan Doyle, 4 Alex MacDonald, 5 Arthur Greene, 6 Patrick Nulty, 7 Max Kearney, 8 Niall O’Riordan. Subs Dan Sheehan, Thomas Clarkson, Cian O’Dwyer, Tomas Killeen and James Moriarty.

 

In other games.. a freak injury to the referee in College Park caused the Senior 2ndgame with Naas to be postponed.

 

Trinity U20s Premier XVafter a competitive first half when they were leading by a narrow 15-10, they had a convincing second half to win out a slightly flattering 56-8 against Old Belvedere who have been playing well this season. Trinity defends its Inter varsity U20s title, the Conroy Cup, in Cork next week.

 

The Trinity U20s Freshers XValso won well versus Old Belvo’s second U20s Bs in a friendly.

 

Trinity Senior 3rdshad their game rained off in DLSP

 

Trinity Senior 4thslost out to Terenure in Santry 20-5 in their first game of the season.

 

Trinity Women’s XV squeaked out their third win in three games with a nail-biter 12-10 win in the Iveagh grounds versus Clontarf. Trailing for most of the game, the Women got a penalty try in the last moments of the game to remain undefeated.