An away win and five tries scored and five points earned would normally be a good excuse for a little bit of self regarding victory celebrations. In reality, Clontarf came up against a Galwegians team who were shorn of their Connacht representatives and were pretty shorn of ideas also. Although I’m sure I’ve seen that scrum half somewhere before…
Once the Clontarf pack had settled the forwards arm wrestle with a mauled try after 20 minutes to go 5-3 ahead, the home team were forced to move the ball wide where it seemed their only option was to rely on their nippy full back Cleary for a little bit of magic.
Unfortunately he got large bits of Evan Ryan and Killian Lett instead and by the end of the game was looking for a puff of smoke to disappear into. Clontarf went in at half time 12-3 ahead after Sam Cronin was shadowing to benefit from Barry O’Mahony’s alert kick ahead. Sometimes those two look like they play the game holding hands!
The game was over as a contest shortly after half time when Ben Gissing burst through a lineout and was odds on to score but got all wobbly and confused from the effort and fell over a prone defender a foot short of the line. Thankfully, Ciaran Kavanagh was on hand to walk over for the try. After that Galwegians visibly wilted and Killian Lett got an intercept and Mick Mc Grath stormed through the defence to add a fifth.
Galwegians scored at the end of the game for a final score of 11 33.
The record books will show a convincing win. The reality was somewhat different with some excellent play from Clontarf mixed with some abject handling, bad communication and bursts of penalty concessions which yielded huge territory.
Thankfully the defence held firm …..