Cork Con members freely admitted before this game that it was win or bust for their AIL ambitions this year and they went about their task with some efficiency in a first half dominated by a howling gale blowing down the pitch from the car park.
(PHOTOS COURTESY OF LAURENT)
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Perhaps it was that they were playing into the gale which, according to the pundits on the sideline, can help your passing, but they were by far the more efficient outfit in the first half zipping the ball along the line with alarming accuracy while Clontarf concentrated on trying to manage the gale which had enough power in it to blow a kick to Raheny. Sometimes the wind is so strong that it proves somewhat of a liability when it is at your back in that any slightly overcooked kick can end up with a scrum back and, obviously, undercooked kicks run the risk of being stormed back by the opposition back three so it must have been a relief for the home supporters that Con had as much difficulty with the conditions in the second half and, that crucially, Clontarf had by far the stronger scrum.
That was key to this game because at 3 all at half time the home supporters were a little apprehensive. Fortunately Clontarf upped their accuracy in the second half and allied to their solid defensive base began to make inroads through the Con line. This resulted in some great phase building and when a Con second row was sent to the bin for fringing Tarf turned to their scrum and earned a, rather quick, penalty try. This proved to be the critical score as Con could not breach the home defence. They did manage to force a couple of penalties and put the home crowd through no end of anxiety at the death but despite their best efforts they ran out of time and Tarf managed, after some help from the ref, to get the ball off the pitch and kill the game.