This was a game of two halves . . . A silly comment given that all rugby games have two halves.
So, more correctly, this was a game of two massively contrasting performances in which Clontarf rode their luck in the first half and came out runaway winners in the second. Watching the first half it was hard not to conclude that Clontarf have a problem with the favourites tag. Ballynahinch are a hardy outfit and arrived with a powerful scrum, a combative lineout, and a willingness to defend passionately but they were flattered somewhat by a Clontarf side who were extremely passive in the opening period.
The fact that a couple of key players were quite ill before the game and therefore below par in the game plus an early injury to the luckless Mick Kearney would not have helped the overall mood. It still doesn’t go all the way to explaining the mental and physical lethargy that dominated the home performance in the opening 40 minutes. ‘Hinch opened the scoring with a penalty and followed it with a try after constant pressure in the home 22. ‘Tarf engineered a couple of breaks which had certain score written all over them only for the chances to go a begging for want of direction and a final pass. The reality is that given their dominance of possession in that half ‘Hinch could have been 20 up at the break, but given the clear chances ‘Tarf squandered it could equally have been 14 – 10. . . so quite a strange game.
The teams turned around at half time with Clontarf down by 10 but with the benefit of a stiff breeze at their backs for the second period. After finally exerting pressure in the Hinch 22 Tarf converted a penalty for 3 – 10 and 5 minutes later Mick McGrath entered the fray with a storming run down the left wing leaving defenders clobbered in his wake for a score and 10 – 10 . Almost immediately from the kick-off Hinch went through a couple of phases and were looking good when a delayed pass in the centre was intercepted by Matt Darcy who immediately released McGrath again for the score under the posts and 17 – 10 to ‘Tarf. That was a proverbial kick in the guts for the visitors whose day went from bad to worse when McGrath added another for a hat-trick and then his brother Rob added one after what looked like a serious knock on from a defensive ‘Tarf tackle. So with the score at 31 – 10 the game moved to a close with a try to the visitors followed immediately by one to Michael Brown after slick passing from Darcy and O’Shea in the centre .
Final score 38 – 17 and a bonus win for Clontarf. Next up is a visit to Limerick and our friends at Young Munster . . . We will be favourites . . . and will be welcomed as such . . . We need to get used to that.