Clontarf qualified for the 2014/15 UBL Final on Saturday by virtue of a performance diametrically opposite to the experience in the Bateman cup final in Cork last week.
In Lakelands on Saturday Clontarf shunned the elements, the home crowd, the position of underdogs, and strangled the Terenure ambitions at source. Victory was achieved through an accurate and aggressive static game with a perfect lineout and a dominant scrum refusing to give the home side clean possession for 80 minutes. Any possession Terenure got was defended ferociously all along the backline leaving them with scraps to work with. And even those scraps were gobbled up by the Northside dogs.
Clontarf entered the game without out half and kicker David Joyce and also without full back and back up kicker Rob Keogh. Next batter up, so to speak, was Matt Darcy who parked a wobbly start with the boot to land the three that counted on a blustery day and an occasion that would have tested most cool customers.
The pack was a revelation of controlled power in the tight and disciplined ball control in the loose. The turnovers that plagued us last week were eradicated and inevitably that tested the patience of the home defence. The result was penalties and yellow cards as fatigue set in.
For me the play of the game was provided by the youngest player on the pitch, Conor O’Brien, who went into contact with the rampaging Terenure second row as he headed over the ‘Tarf line for a certain score, wrapped him and held him up for a five yard scrum which the ‘Tarf pack duly dealt with.
It summed up the day; sometimes rugby isn’t pretty, sometimes it’s just plain glorious.