If a pundit had said to me last week that Clontarf would score 6 tries against UCD on Saturday I think I could probably see how that could be achieved against a side missing some heavy hitters, sitting relatively safe in the league. In short , with not a lot to play for and no enormous downside to losing. If the same pundit said to me that Clontarf would score 6 tries and lose, I’d have shrugged and called up the men in the white suits with the one way trip to a nice cosy padded cell.
What happened on Saturday blew everyone’s minds ….. All of Clontarf suffered a trauma. All of UCD enjoyed close to a religious rapture ! . Even the commentators on game stream were convulsed into chicken like squawks as the game unfolded . Without employing any emotion, what we watched was a young side rolling the dice and going for it. Like a drunk in a casino putting it all on red and closing his eyes for three spins of the wheel.
The first half was peppered with WTF moments. First up was a Clontarf attacking maul on the UCD line which was fumbled by Tarf, flicked up by a defender then booted downfield by a second row for the home side to pursue, regather and score for a 7 nil lead.
Tarf then played fast and loose with the UCD rush defence and before you could say AH NOW HERE we had thrown two intercepts and we’re 21 nil down. UCD then added a penalty for a 24 nil lead which Tarf pegged back with an unconverted try for 24 5 at half time.
19 points is a mountain to climb no matter what the circumstances and if you give a Collidge side that kind of lead they will use it as a cushion for their confidence. Sure enough after Tarf jumped on an overthrown lineout to bring the score to 24 10 Collidge came again ,loaded the blind side and scored after some super fast hands.
That pushed the score to 31 10. They then added a beauty when their full back Tarrent attacked the seam and rounded the defence to score under the sticks for 38 10.
As the students tired Clontarf started to turn the screw and Aitzol King and Peter Maher started to show their class on the wings. Clontarf began to chip away with scores from Con Kelly , Peter Maher , and Aitzol King and when Jim Peters stormed his way through the UCD line defence the score was brought to 38 32 with a kick off to come and Collidge hanging on for dear life. It wasn’t to be as time ran out and no one could possibly begrudge the young home side their victory which they celebrated with huge joy and relief at the final whistle.
This result, along with Nures win in Cork has now set up a mouthwatering fixture in Lakeland’s next week. 1st V 2nd ….. oh my heart !!
