TRINITY BACK TO WINNING WAYS!
Trinity 26pts Old Belvedere 15pts – February 10th 2017

Trinity hosted local rivals Old Belvedere in College Park on Friday night. The Students who defeated the Anglesea road club in November 27-7 were made to struggle for long parts of this game, but in the end they ran out convincing winners against a team playing desperate defence.

Trinity started the game with an all out assault on the visitors line, but a combination of technical offences and stubborn Belvo defence kept them out. Trinity went close on several occasions but could not get it across the whitewash.

Belvo did kick an early penalty, and looked dangerous at times on counter attack, but the territory and possession charts showed massive Trinity domination.

Trinity’s out half Jack McDermott missed an early shot at goal, but followed this up with a well-taken kick for 3 pts.

Old Belvedere had their purple patch of play in the ten minutes up to half time, when they camped in the Trinity 22 metre area and applied heavy pressure on the students line. Trinity looked to be weathering a storm, but a communication mix up out wide let the Visitors in for a soft try. Mcdermot kicked a penalty to bring his team to 8-6 at half time.

In the second half Trinity ramped up the intensity to another level, and the forwards dominated the close exchanges particularly the scrums. McDermott kicked another penalty 9-8. Trinity then took the lead when the forwards forced a penalty try from a scrum. 16-8 ahead looked good, but Belvo took advantage of a sin bin for Trinity, to score a try out wide.

Back Trinity came and out half McDermott kicked another penalty after heavy pressure on the Belvo line. They then scored a nice try in the backs with freshman Billy O’Hora running a great ‘in out’ line to score in the corner. Full Back Brian Mollen with McDermott sin binned, iced the game with great conversion from the corner. Jack McDermott came back on and kicked another penalty to deny the visitors any chance of a bonus point.

This was a very important win for Trinity who came into the game one point behind their rivals. They now place 6th in the league, but now make the short trip to Aviva stadium back pitch to play league leaders Lansdowne.

Trinity team; 15 Brian Mollen, 14 Tim Maupin, 13 Micheal Courtney (Philip Murphy 70), 12 Kyle Dixon, 11 Billy O’Hora, 10 Jack McDermott, 9 Brian Slater (Dan Joyce 65), 1 Eric O’Sullivan, 2 Patrick Finlay, 3 Andy Keating, 4 Jack Burke, 5 Pierce Dargan, 6 Raef Tyrrell (Niall O’Riordan 60), 7 Brian Du Toit, 8 Tom Ryan

In other games; Trinity U20s Premier XV stayed in 2nd in the JP Fanagan League when they beat Blackrock College RFC 34-17 in very wet and windy conditions in College Park. Trinity ran in 6 tries to two in a tough physical encounter.

Trinity U20s Pennant XV defeated Old Belvedere 27-12 in horrible conditions on the back pitch in Anglesea Road.