Major shout out to the brave and faithful who made the journey north into the, not so benign, remnants of storm Darragh for this date with the league leaders. I swear my car lifted off the road in a gust on the M1! The storm may have abated by kick off, but it was still windy enough from the clubhouse end to make a serious impact on the match, resulting in a large part of the first half being played in the Clontarf 22.
What followed was a triumph of defensive defiance by the Clontarf side. Faced with a storm-force wind, delivering the ball into their 22, and waves of attack from the league leaders, Clontarf stood like a rock in the storm and managed to hold the home team to nil for the first half. What was also clear is that the Hinch men were using huge reserves of energy and effort in their pursuit of points along with reserves of morale as well. So when Tarf turned at half time, 3 points to the good and with the wind at their backs, the home side were staring at a sisyphean task.
Like a stag run to ground by hunting dogs, the air of inevitability hung heavy on Hinch and it wasn’t long into the second half when Tarf struck the first telling blow of the game.
With 43 minutes gone, a quick tap-penalty in front of the home posts saw three heavy carries to the line where Tadgh Bird took a short pass on the burst and made the line shipping a right wallop as he went! That brought the score to 0 10 and Tarf started to gain ascendancy. With 46 minutes gone,Tarf took a line-out on the home 10 metre line and marched it into the home 22,where one phase later Con Kelly read the rushing defence and his grubber sat up beautifully for him to regather and score a classic individual try. So with 8 minutes gone in the second half, Tarf had gone from full on nostril flaring defence to 0 17 on the scoreboard .
Hinch rallied, however, and a yellow for Ben Griffen and then another for Jim Peters saw them camped in the Tarf 22. Inevitably, the superior numbers told so it wasn’t a surprise when Hinch got in at the corner for a well-deserved reward for their efforts.
As we moved into the fourth quarter Hinch’s flickering recovery was snuffed out when a promising move out of defence was intercepted by Aitzol King, who jogged home for 5 22. Con Kelly added a penalty for 5 25 after a superb jackel by Ivan Soroka.
The game then turned into a brutish gladiatorial spectacle, with heavy carries and heavy hits galore, as both sides emptied the proverbial tank in a final effort.
With 70 minutes gone Hinch made ground into the Tarf 22, where they won a scrum 10 yards out under the posts. 23 phases of astonishing defence later, Aaron Coleman put a stop to the nonsense and brilliantly pulled an attacker over the line for the turnover of a held up ball. It was an amazing display of bloody minded Tarf commitment.
Hinch did manage to get in but at that stage they had used up too much time to make a difference to the result. The final coup de gras was delivered by the Tarf backs in injury time. Aitzol King carried hard into contact to create blindside space and superb hands from Cal Smith and Tadgh Bird put Stephen Ryan clear down the right and Tadgh was up in support for the inside pass for his second and the bonus point try.
Appropriately, and not a little ironically, the final act was a shuddering double tackle from Con Kelly and Cal Smith on the Tarf line which dislodged the ball forward for the knock on and the final whistle.
In case anyone needed proof of how competitive the league is this year, Clontarf came into this game in third place in the league, got a 5 point win and remain in third place.
Next week we entertain City of Armagh in the last home game before Christmas. There is a big day planned in the Club with Leinster V Clermont on the TV, music, food and general seasonal jollity. Definitely one not to miss !!
Many thanks to Peter Walsh for the words and to all our Jersey Sponsors for their support