Buccaneers 6pts – Trinity 27pts; November 29th 2015

Trinity travelled to Dubarry Park on Saturday to a ground where they had not won in All Ireland League Rugby. Trinity were determined to find a performance even though the conditions and the home team would be tough to overcome.

Trinity played into the strong breeze and hard showers. The sticky conditions underfoot made things even more difficult. Incredibly the Students played positive rugby and managed some breathtaking rugby under the circumstances. The forwards turned in their best performance of the season thus far and dominated up front at scrum and line out. In open play the whole team worked hard to keep the ball with wave after wave of attack with very few errors.

Trinity got up on to the Buccs line with some very aggressive hard running and skillful play, and from a 5 metre scrum the forwards heaved the home team over their line for a pushover try with scrum half Angus Lloyd diving on the ball as it went over the line.

The Students kept attacking and with a penalty given to them under the home team posts, captain Nick McCarthy tapped and went. The ball was knocked loose only for out half Jack McDermott to pass soccer style to his wing Killian O’Leary to win the race for the touch down or a somewhat fortuitous score. 10-0 up into the wind was a great reward for some enterprising play by the Students.  Jack McDermott added another penalty. Buccs did score two penalties to keep the score to 13-6 at half time.

In the second half Trinity camped in the home teams 22. Eventually flanker Nick McCarthy broke through and fed his number 8 Tom Ryan who dived in under the posts. McDermott added the conversion.

Conditions deteriorated with more rain and both teams struggled to get continuity enough to score. Trinity looked set to win out. But late in the game, Trinity counter attacked and the ball was moved wide through the hands to right wing Tim Maupin who received the ball from centre Paddy Lavelle 60 metres out.  Maupin burned his wing on the outside; he then cut inside the covering full back and then the covering wing to score by the posts for a sensational try to give the Students an unlikely bonus point for four tries.

This was an impressive win for the Students who have moved into third place behind St Mary’s and Ballymena. They have one more game before the Christmas break against Shannon who have won four games in a row impressively. In a new quirk of the league fixtures, it will be a back-to-back situation, as they face Shannon in College Park and then face the same opponent in January to start the second round of fixtures in the New Year.

Trinity team; 15 Conor Kearns, 14 Tim Maupin, 13 Paddy Lavelle, 12 Seb Fromm (Michael Courtney 60), 11 Killian O’Leary, 10 Jack McDermott, 9 Angus Lloyd (Brian Slater 68), 1 Eric O’Sullivan, 2 Patrick Finlay (Matt McCann 70), 3 Andrew Keating (Fintan Murphy 50), 4 Jack Burke, 5 Raef Tyrell (Conor Gleeson 55), 6 Nick McCarthy, 7 Brian Du Toit, 8 Tom Ryan.