TRINITY BEAT OLD BOYS!

St Marys 19pts Trinity 31pts; September 30th 2016

Trinity won a memorable game in a very wet Templeville Road against old rivals St Marys in a roller coaster of a game.

The game had extra meaning with the Clubs finishing first and second in Division 1B last season. The other unique issue was St Marys had in their ranks the last two Trinity Captains, Nick McCarthy and Paddy Lavelle, and were joined by hooker Richard Halpin and scrum half Dave Fanagan – all four of these players were outstanding servants to Trinity Rugby.

Both teams tried to play positive rugby in very difficult conditions. Trinity opened the game strongly and kept the ball for long periods in the first 15 minutes, being rewarded with a 35 metre penalty from out half Jack McDermott.

Ten minutes later St Marys had their purple patch and dominated the last 25 minutes of the first half. Their out half Sean Kearns kicked two penalties and then the home team scored a well taken try displaying good hands to get the ball wide to score, Kearns added the conversion.

Trinity had lost their talisman and hooker Patrick Finlay and looked a little flat during this spell, they did manage to put together a couple of attacks before half time to close the score to 13-6 at half time.

In the second half Trinity came out with a more positive attitude, and began to dominate the physical exchanges, as the game wore on the home team seemed to fatigue, and the students fed off this, and along with the rain subsiding, began to play some of their traditional running rugby.

The game literally turned on a bounce of the ball, when St Marys very talented Irish U20 full back Terry Kennedy chipped over the cover defence, but he found Trinity’s Jack McDermott covering in behind the line. The Student out half displayed fabulous skill in gathering the bouncing ball on the sprint, he passed to wing Bryan Mollen who played the ball off to a trailing left wing Colm Hogan who burst through to score out wide for a sensational counter attack try! St Marys did come back to take the lead with another penalty, but the tables had clearly turned and it was the students who were moving the ball around the field with ever increasing confidence.

Trinity gained a penalty which they kicked to the home team’s 22 metre line. The visiting pack ,who dominated the scrums particularly in the second half, got in behind Jack Burke who caught the ball and his pack drove him in for a well worked try.

Minutes later Trinity took the home team through several phases until Jack Burke picked and burst through the middle of the home defence before putting outside centre Michael Courtney in under the posts for another well worked try.

Trinity followed this up with another penalty by McDermott to get out to a 12 pts lead 31-19.

In the final minutes St Mary’s pushed hard for a bonus point try but Trinity displayed incredible spirit to keep out the powerful home team for their 2nd win in three games in Division 1A.

This was such important win for the developing Trinity team. Next week they host the legendary Young Munsters in College Park. Young Munster come into the game in second place in the league.

Trinity team; 15 Jack Kelly, 14 Bryan Mollen, 13 Michael Courtney (James O’Donovan 68), 12 Kyle Dixon, 11 Colm Hogan, 10 Jack McDermott, 9 Dan Joyce, 1 Eric O’Sullivan, 2 Patrick Finlay (Liam Cronin 15), 3 Andy Keating (Shane Byrne 60-70), 4 Jack Burke, 5 Pierce Dargan, 6 Sam Pim, 7 Ross Todd (Niall O’Riordan 60), 8 Adrien Chabonnier

Other News; Trinity U20s travelled down to Naas for a JP Fanagan qualifying game. The new Trinity unit were just too good on the day running out 76-0 in what was an impressive display on a gorgeous Autumn Sunday afternoon. The Students, with one more qualifying game Vs Navan in College park next Sunday, have already qualified for the Super 8.