UCD 31pts- Trinity 47pts; April 25th 2016.

 

Trinity won their way through to the prestigious McCorry Cup Final on Monday evening with a stunning seven try blitz of their Belfield rivals UCD. Playing their first game in over a month Trinity came out running!

 

Trinity took UCDs breath away with a try in the first two minutes when captain Dan Joyce ran the ball off a penalty, he fed his back row Dave St Ledger who took the ball up, from the quick recycle the ball was moved to Irish U19s International centre Michael McDermott who glided between a the two UCD centres for a brilliantly taken try.

 

Trinity continued to attack and second row Cian O’Dwyer went close to scoring, but from the ensuing scrum, the big Trinity pack heaved their illustrious neighbours over the line after the scrum was reset for a second time. In the opening minutes the Trinity’s tempo, continuity and interplay between backs and forwards was simply a joy to watch. The backs seemed to break the line at will.

 

From a scrum, out half Tommy Whittle who was outstanding on the night, noticed the UCD defence sliding off him and cut through to put his outside centre James Toale through under the posts. At this point Trinity was playing textbook rugby.

 

UCD to their credit got some territory and kicked a penalty. 21-3 Trinity.

 

Trinity forwards was simply too aggressive up front at scrum time and driving maul. The line speed was good and it was no surprise that Brian Mollen picked off a pass to go 70M, when UCD were playing rugby on the back foot.

 

Nobody expected after the long lay off that Trinity would be so far ahead after 30 minutes. UCD came back right on half time to score a try of their own after Trinity were penalized six times in a row for different infringements.

 

In the second half Trinity got a line out near the line and the forwards gleefully drove the light blue pack back over their line with flanker Sam Pim claiming the try.

 

UCD then had their expected purple patch with Irish U20s players Greg Jones, Hugo Keenan and Jack Dwan carrying strongly, along with Irish U19s Internationals Johnny Guy and Jack Regan, with Leinster U20s centres Matthew Gilsenan and Andy Marks always looking dangerous with ball in hand, they counter attacked well to score two tries as Trinity began to show their lack of match fitness.

 

Trinity regained control when replacement Wing James O’Donovan sliced through to score under the posts. Minutes later wing Josh Healy picked off another wild pass to score to close out the game.

 

This was Trinity’s third win out of four this season against the highly talented UCD squad, they now move into the final with a game against old rivals Lansdowne, always a fierce contest.

 

15 Colm Hogan, 14 Brian Mollen, 13 James Toal (James O’Donovan 40), 12 Michael McDermott, 11 Josh Healy, 10 Tommy Whittle (Jack Balbernie 70), 9 Dan Joyce (Rowan Osborne 55), 1 Eoin Corcoran (James Bollard 35), 2 Joe Horan (Maurice Buckley 75), 3 Fintan Murphy (Darragh Higgins 40), 4 Conor Gleeson, 5 Cian O’Dwyer, 6 Sam Pim, 7 Toby Boyd, 8 Dave St Ledger (Niall O’Riordan 45).