Trinity 26pts – Belfast Harlequins 12pts, 31st October 2015.

Trinity hosted Belfast Harlequins on Saturday,  a glorious late October day in College Park.. Both teams came out to play open rugby but neither really took the game by storm. The Students were error prone and struggled to get the tempo and continuity that their game demands. Trinity led 6-0 at half time with out half Jack McDermott kicking a penalty and drop goal. This sums up the attacking efforts from both teams on a day perfect for running rugby.

In the second half Trinity upped their game and McDermott kicked a penalty to go 9-0 up. This was followed by centre Seb Fromm finishing off a well worked try when Paddy Lavelle ran a nice trailing line off scrum half Angus Lloyd. He in turn put his co centre over for the game’s first try.

Trinity scored again when Seb Fromm broke away before being tackled short of the line.  Lavelle carried on the attack before Number 8 Tom Ryan dived over from close in.

Later on in the game, Trinity managed to put together some impressive continuity moving the ball wide right to wing Tim Maupin. They then recycled the ball and moved the it wide left to Full back Conor Kearns who dummied his way through at pace to score a superb try.

With the bonus point for four tries now in sight, Trinity failed to nail the vital score, in fact it was the visitors who had the last say in the game with a try on the last play.

It was good to get the result for the students who now move up to fourth place in the league, but the students were not at their best in this game against a team with four Ulster players in their ranks  – prop Richard Lutton, flanker Frank Taggart, second row Neil McCoombe and Full back Rory Scholes.

Next week they travel to Cork to play the very experienced Dolphin RFC who have just come down from Division 1A. Dolphin are in a great run of form right now and this will be a severe test for the Students away from home.

15 Conor Kearns, 14 Tim Maupin, 13 Paddy Lavelle (Kingsley McGowan 65), 12 Seb Fromm, 11 Max McFarland, 10 Jack McDermott, 9 Angus Lloyd (Brian Slater 65), 1 Eric O’Sullivan, 2 Jack Boland (Patrick Finlay 40), 3 Andy Keating (Fintan Murphy 65), 4 Jack Burke, 5 Raef Tyrell, 6 Nick McCarthy (Conor Gleeson 60), 7 Brian Du Toit, 8 Tom Ryan.

Trinity 2nds moved to the top of the Metro Division 2 with a hard fought win at Blackrock College RFC on Thursday night 18-9. Tries by wing Zac O’Hagan back afte18 months out of the game, and centre Ruadhan Magee just about got the students across the line in a game where they were forced to defend for most of the game.

Trinity 3rd and 4th teams had a double header in Santry with games V Old Wesley and Coolmine. First up was a game between Trinity J4ths and Old Wesley, The depleted 4ths struggled throughout and lost 40-5 to a well-drilled Donnybrook outfit in Metro 9.

In the second game Trinity J3rds were pushed hard, but won their second close game in a row 22-17 against a tough physical Coolmine XV in this Metro 6 encounter.

On Sunday Trinity had one of the most disappointing Sundays in a few years.  Both U20s teams were well beaten.  UCD avenged their Conroy Cup Final loss with a 41-14 win over a very flat Trinity Premier U20s team, the game was in the balance at half time 10-9 UCD, but in the last quarter UCD piled on the agony.

A depleted Trinity Pennant XV lost to Old Wesley in Premier 2 league 38-0.

This was both team’s first loss of the season. There is much work to be done.