Clontarf welcomed an already relegated Trinity side to Castle Avenue for the final League fixture of the season.
I will miss the annual AIL visit to College Park which is the historic home of Irish Rugby.
Apparently the Irish Rugby logo of the shamrocks on the Irish jerseys was originally the Trinity College Rugby logo, but was ceded to the National team (probably because the Irish team were picked by Trinity at the time).
The top four Clubs were confirmed before the weekend but the positions were certainly not, with Clontarf looking at finishing anywhere from 1st to 4th depending on other results. As it worked out, there were no surprises and no major shocks, well, apart from our usual opening shocks to the system delivered by our beloved boys in red and blue, as they allowed Trinity to jump out to a 12 point lead in the first 5 minutes. That has become an unwelcome habit and serves as a type of penance to the home support.
Thankfully, normal service was resumed pretty shortly afterwards with a cracker of a pass from Louis O’Reilly to Mark O’Sullivan on the left after Ru Byron was tap tackled while dancing his way to glory. Throw in a penalty try at the maul also and the story of the game was written.
Trinity battled gamely and managed another try in the second half, but Clontarf were in no mood to be pickpocketed by students again and played a hard carrying tactical game that few teams can cope with. Martin Maloney barrelled over for one, Dylan Donnellan squirmed in at the back of a maul and Peter Maher got one out wide, after creating and exploiting a sliver of a gap with superb footwork. Con Kelly converted a few, which was a miracle given the remnants of Storm Kathleen blasting us around and his line kicking in the second half was biblical.
In the end the score-line showed a 12 point victory, which was all to no avail in terms of improving our league position, as both Terenure and Cork Con notched up solid victories in the North to nail down first and second.
So, we travel to Cork for an AIL semi. As I remember, we have won a semi in Temple Hill, back in the mists of time, on the way to losing to Shannon in Thomond by the first try scored rule. The first try scored ! …… sheesh …..
The day was dovetailed by two other fixtures with the J4’s losing narrowly in their Metro Division 6 league final to a spirited Barnhall side and the J1’s recording a superb victory, again over Trinity, in the Metro League Division 1 final. Congratulations to all involved in both sides. It was a proud day for the Club and we all rode the coat-tails of honour and success on the day!