Malone 19pts, Trinity 41pts – 31st January, 2015

Trinity travelled north to Belfast to play in cold and windy conditions for their All Ireland League game V Malone.

In the first half Trinity played into a very strong wind, so strong that they only kicked twice in the entire half! They started strong and *8 Tom Ryan trailed a break by scrum half Angus Lloyd to find a huge gap to score by the posts. Full back Conor Kearns added the extra points.

Malone came back to apply pressure of their own and they were rewarded a penalty try after a series of scrums on the Trinity line. Trinity bounced back to attack with ball in hand. Wing Tim Maupin broke the line and fed centre Seb Fromm in support to score a well taken try.

Malone with the strong wind at their backs kicked long and invited Trinity to attack from deep. They turned over the ball and their centre found a gap in the visitors defence to go over close to the posts.

14-14 with half time approaching, Trinity attacked and provided the ‘killer blow’ when they went through multiple phases again and were very patient in the build up. After several ball carries through the middle, the ball was moved wide and Seb Fromm again put hooker Richard Halpin away out wide. With skills of a centre Halpin took the half gap and fed Tim Maupin storming up on the outside to score a crucial try right on half time to give the students the lead plus the use of a very strong wind.

In the second half, Trinity gained a penalty and Conor Kearns converted from 40 metres out. The well struck penalty put Trinity eight points ahead which seemed like a bigger lead than usual given the conditions. Trinity now smelled blood and they camped deep in the Malone half. They gained revenge for the earlier Malone penalty try and were awarded with one themselves after the scrum put the home pack under massive pressure and the referee had no option but to give the penalty try. With the bonus point under their belts, Trinity did not let up and Flanker Brian Du Toit, after several charges by the forwards at the line, wriggled over like only he can!

Minutes later Trinity were back on the Malone line and from a line out Jack Burke was driven in from 5M out. 41-14 up on 60 minutes the game became sloppy. Malone, to their credit, never gave up and their wing finished off a sweeping movement to score in front of their club house.

This was an important win for Trinity as, with five games to go, they needed to keep pace with the other ‘top four’ clubs whom all won their respective games. The AIL takes a three week break until February 21st. On this day the ‘top four’ teams all face each other. Trinity will host second place Garryowen in College Park and Galwegians will host Ballymena.

Trinity Team; 15 Conor Kearns, 14 Tim Maupin, 13 Paddy Lavelle (Mike Courtney), 12 Seb Fromm, 11 Jack Fitzpatrick, 10 Mark Nicholson, 9 Angus Lloyd (Brian Slater 58), 1 Andy Keating (Eric O’Sullivan 40), 2 Richard Halpin (Paddy Finlay 70), 3 Tom Collis, 4 Jack Burke, 5 Raef Tyrell, 6 Pierce Dargan, 7 Brian Du Toit, 8 Tom Ryan (Nick McCarthy 60)