When you were a youngster and developing civilised social skills, a big treat was a birthday party. Everyone dressed up and a present was bought for the lucky young host. This gentle social norm was carried forward into adulthood, where the thought of arriving for a dinner or gathering at a friend’s house without a gift was unacceptable. You never turn up with “ your hands hangin” beside you. A bottle of wine for the host, flowers or chocolates for the hostess.
This is the second weekend where Clontarf have arrived at their AIL party and opened proceedings by gifting their opposition a hefty positive on the scoreboard.
Against Lansdowne we managed to reel it back, helped by some extraordinary good fortune in the shape of a dropped ball, which denied the visitors a certain 5 points. In this ultra-competitive league, a slow defensive start is ruthlessly punished and is often fatal.
On Saturday, YM kicked off and within two minutes had found space down the right, which created a huge overlap on the left and they went 7 0 ahead. After 10 minutes their wrecking ball of a no 8 came off the back of a maul, broke a number of tackles and scored for 12 0. The missed conversion was a small mercy in a tortuous start to the game.
Tarf then settled in and dominated possession and territory to no avail for the next 30 minutes. It was an cocktail mix of brilliant effort in attack fused with sheer bad luck, jiggy skills under pressure, and some fairly hefty defence as well. For those of us who fancy ourselves as rugby pundits, the news that Munsters were bolstered by the selection of a number of Munster and Connacht professionals, while Tarf were digging deep into the squad list perhaps would have engendered an “excuse” mentality. For me, the sight of a mix of Clontarf U20’s and just out of U20’s bringing it to the big home side was really encouraging. Every Tarf player made a positive contribution. Where the home side dominated was in the strength of their tackling and their superb work at the breakdown. They needed every bit of luck they got because after a sloppy start Tarf dominated the first half everywhere but the scoreboard.
As the half came to an end, YM served a hammer blow and for me the critical score. A scrum at the Tarf 22 was marching forward and looked to have earned a relieving penalty for the visitors, but the ref deemed it a reset. Munsters rode their luck and were awarded a penalty at the reset scrum, went to the corner and their power in the maul did the rest. To add insult to injury, the conversion wobbled and veered drunkenly all over the place before flipping over the bar for 19 7. Tarf again camped on the home line but were denied by desperate defence to half time.
Agonisingly, we opened the second by conceding a try wide on the right for 24 7 and the result looked done for the home side. YM added a penalty after 10 for 27 7.
5 minutes later, after a superb surge into the 22 by Victor Allen, Tarf got in through Aaron Coleman close to the posts for 27 14.
That was the end of the scoring but not the effort. Clontarf lost the game to a worthy opponent but will have left Limerick knowing that they could have and should have got more for their sterling work. Hats off to Ben Griffin who toiled magnificently in defence and attack. Kudos also to Aaron Coleman and the rest of the back row who battled against giant opponents and had them struggling desperately to keep two scores ahead.
Next week we welcome Cork Con to Castle Avenue for a fixture that usually warms the cockles if your heart. Con are currently top of the league (and why wouldn’t they be but will remember being mugged in Temple Hill earlier in the season …….
Many thanks to all of our Jersey Sponsors and, as ever, to Peter Walsh for his words
