And so we arrived at game 9 in this, most competitive, AIL season. The first of two fixtures against Armagh which straddle the festive season. Boy, do we need a break from the stress! It might be worth reminding that at the end of last season Clontarf bade farewell to 4 of their back 5 forwards and their talismanic centre Matt Darcy, prompting furious activity to rebuild the side to a competitive standard.
The results of this effort are now becoming apparent and while there is plenty of work to be done, it is clear that the basic principles of crash bang wallop rugby have been maintained with a lash of flash out wide as well.
No better illustration than the kick off which was gathered by John Vinson, who burst past two defenders at the 22 and stormed off down the pitch towards the clubhouse. A few lightning phases later an error ended the excitement, but it was a taster of what was to come in the match.
The first quarter had plenty of good stuff, finished with frustrating lack of control. Clontarf dominated possession and territory, but failure to manage the ball led to easy exits for Armagh and periods under the pump in the home 22. So the competition in the first quarter was about who could get more turnovers, the Clontarf pack or winger James Conroy. In the end the pack may have shaded it, but it was close.
Armagh opened the scoring with a huge penalty from Full Back Falloon on 20 minutes. That sparked Tarf into life and they replied with a maul for 7 3 . Armagh took advantage of some confusion down the left to score and bring it to 7 10 and then landed another pen for 7 13. Right on half time Tadgh Bird added to his developing total, with a try under the posts for 14 13 at the break. At this stage Tadgh has scored 7 tries and is developing a contrasting partnership in the centre with Connor Fahy. Tadgh takes the balletic route to the gain line, with multiple changes in direction; Connor takes the kinetic route preferring to levitate rather than mesmerise the defence. He made two scintillating busts in the first half that deserved more reward.
The second half started with some good old Tarf ruthlessness. From the kick off Tarf forced a knock on, won a penalty at the scrum, went to the corner and Dylan scored from the ensuing maul. Con added the convert for 21 13.
Unfortunately that little dose of sublime was swiftly followed by a dose of ridiculous as we failed to gather the restart, infringed twice allowing Armagh to our 5 metre line where they gratefully camped before scoring wide on the right for 21 18.
5 minutes later the pressure was eased after a great burst by Barry Grey took us deep into the Armagh 22, where after multiple phases Con Kelly got over under the posts for 28 18.
Again, we made a Horlicks of the restart and Armagh were back on our line by invitation!
However, in the pivotal period of the game, Tarf declared ne plus ultra and some superb defence saw Armagh driven away from the home tryline, where Fahy got in a scrag at the 22 and the ball was turned over brilliantly by John Vinson for a home penalty and sweet relief from the Lanigan’s Ball pattern of we score, you score rugby.
The comedy club kept producing though, as we messed up the lineout, Armagh opted to throw rather than scrum and they, in turn, messed it up, allowing Fionn Gilbert to storm away where he found Jim Peters in support. Armagh managed to regain possession, but their relieving kick was returned by Aitzol King and knocked on for a Tarf scrum. The scrum won a penalty which was dispatched to the corner and the lineout maul was dotted down by Barry Grey for 35 18. That was pretty much the killer score. Armagh got in under the posts at the death when their Full Back took advantage of a subtle block to fly through the home defence under the posts. The conversion brought the final whistle and a score of 35 25.
Merry Christmas to everyone and thanks for the support so far. Sometimes it hasn’t been pretty but to go into the Christmas break securely in second place is an achievement to be proud of.
We make the trip to Armagh for the return on 11th January.
Many thanks to Jonathan Larby of T-PRO, our match-ball sponsor, to all of our Jersey Sponsors, to Peter Walsh for the words and Sam O’Byrne for the pictures