TRINITY LOSE OUT IN DYING MINUTES.

Trinity 13pts, UCD 23pts; 24th September 2016

 

Trinity lost out to a star studded UCD team on Saturday and on the run of play can possibly count themselves unlucky. UCD arrived in College Park hot favourites with 12 contracted players on view. Trinity however came into the game with an experimental looking team on the back of a win over Terenure.

UCD dominated the early stages and got their score when Leinster Senior and Irish U20s prop Andrew Porter burst through a tackle and offloaded to wing Barry Daly who took it to the line before offloading to Leinster no8 Padar Timmons. This was to be UCD only real attack on the Trinity line until the last two or three minutes of the game. It was a case of the UCD defence snuffing out Trinity’s attack for most of the game.

Trinity tried to attack with ball in hand throughout the game. But a combination of poor handling in the wet conditions, and well organized hard hitting UCD defence kept the home team out. They did manage to kick two penalties through Jack McDermott while playing into the wind. UCD kicked three of their own, through out half Tim Foley to lead 16-6 at half time.

In the second half Trinity dominated territory and possession but struggled to get the quick ball they crave, and when they did they tended to force the ball near the line. It was a naïve sloppy performance by the young Trinity troops, but hopefully they will learn from the experience.

They did however score a nice try by full back Colm Hogan who chipped the ball over his opposite number and won the chase to the ball for a superb individual try. McDermott incredibly converted from the sideline. At 16-13 with 3 minutes to go, Trinity looked poised for a famous victory as the Belfield boys were just hanging on.

But just when Trinity were camped in the UCD 22 metre zone, they turned the ball over (again!)from a driving maul, UCD kicked long, caught Trinity in possession and turned the ball over they then showed their killer instinct and six or seven phases later their scrum half Jamie Glynn scored against the post.

This was a gutting loss for Trinity just as they looked like they might snatch victory themselves, there were some major positives the scrum certainly had the better of their illustrious opponents. They had the game’s best player on the day in hooker Patrick Finlay who was a constant thorn in the UCD sides. They dominated long periods of the game against a highly talented mainly professional squad. The negatives were they made 24 handling errors, and failed to put the UCD defence under more pressure.

Next Friday Trinity travel the short distance over to Templeville Road to play St Marys, KO 7.30pm

Trinity team; 15 Colm Hogan, 14 Bryan Mollen, 13 Michael Courtney, 12 Kyle Dixon, 11 Evan Dixon, 10 Jack McDermott, 9 Rowan Osborne (Dan Joyce 50), 1 Eric O’Sullivan, 2 Patrick Finlay, 3 Andy Keating (Fintan Murphy 70), 4 Jack Burke, 5 Cian O’Dwyer (Adrien Chabonnier 4 – Liam Cronin 70), 6 Sam Pim, 7 Dermot O’Flynn, 8 Pierce Dargan. 

Other news; Trinity 2nd XV beat Greystones 28-26 in another error infested game in College Park.

The Trinity U20s started their defence of the JP Fanagan U20s title with a hard fought four try win over plucky NUIG Barnhall 24-15. The students made hard work of finishing some great movements in wet conditions. Next week they travel to Naas for another qualifying group game.

The Trinity senior 3rds lost to Old Belvedere 38-7

Trinity 4th XV won V Parkmore in Santry