Our best wishes go to the Shannon captain, Sean McCarthy, who suffered a nasty multiple leg injury late in the game. Get well soon Sean.
While there might have been a cobbled-together look about the team selection for this fixture, there was nothing cobbled about the performance. From the get-go the visitors slipped into the familiar pattern of relentless phase building and the first shift up the right wing resulted in a penalty for a high shot on winger O’Donohoe which ended with a lineout maul and a try for 0-5. Shannon replied with a penalty after Tarf handled on the ground. It was to be their only score.
Clontarf kicked-off and Shannon returned the ball to full back Aitzol King. From there the pattern of the game was set with the visitors moving the ball through 20 phases before Shannon saw it again.
During WW2 there was a running debate about battle tactics between Eisenhower and the British. The British were in favour of sharp thrusts to force their way into Germany quickly, whereas Ike favoured the broad front relentless attritional approach, designed to engage the enemy at multiple areas and grind them down. Clontarf are from the Ike school. They didn’t score again until right on half time, but they had exacted a punishing toll from the defenders for all of the first half.
The second half started with a bang and a cracking try to Ben Murphy after robust work by Ben Griffin down the right, followed by a burst from Aitzol King into the Shannon 22. Tony Ryan made the telling line break and Ben Murphy was in support to dance over under the posts. Matt Darcy added another with a classic show and go and was enveloped by a swarm of minis in celebration. Tadgh Bird added the conversion for 3- 26 and the result was secured.
The Shannon captain was hurt in the ensuing kick-off, which took some time to resolve. So when the game restarted it had lost some of its rhythm. There was enough fire left in Tarf to bookend the scores with another maul for a final score of 3-33.
So, the penultimate set finished for Tarf with a maximum of 15 points out of 15. Congratulations to Mikey McGiff ,who made his AIL debut and didn’t put a foot wrong. Shout out also to Mick Fitzpatrick, who joined an illustrious group of Clontarf props with a 5 minute cameo at the end of the match. Kudos also to Tadgh Bird who was calmness personified at 10 and to Aitzol King and his two wingers Cian and Seni, who dealt with everything kicked at them, without fear.