Our second round of the Leinster Senior Cup against newly promoted St Mary’s saw both teams rotate their squads from their opening games. Originally labelled as a home fixture the game was played in Lakelands as College Football ruled the roost in Lansdowne Road, and St Mary’s couldn’t host the game as their own pitches were getting a bit of work done before a busy season. 

 

The first few minutes saw both teams show plenty of attacking intent and pressing in defence without the ball. The Lansdowne pressure defence forced a fumble from one of the Mary's forwards fumble and prop Jerry Cahir was quick to seize on the loose ball and Lansdowne swiftly moved the ball wide. The subsequent ruck saw scrum half James Kenny dummy and break in between 2 helpless Mary's forwards, scampering in for our opening try just left of the posts. Steve McMahon at out-half knocked over the conversion and we were 7-0 ahead with less than 10 minutes gone. St. Mary's responded well and went on the attack down the left flank with a kick in behind the defence eventually winning them a scrum 5 metres out from our line. They went direct off the scrum hitting the ball up and then quickly switching direction and going left crashing over the line for their first score of the game, 7-5. 

 

Lansdowne took advantage of St Mary’s hospitality off the kick off with the ball getting coughed up and barn storming no. 8 Harry Van Eeden charging towards the Mary's try line. Marys conceded a penalty and we opted to take a scrum on the 5m line with Van Eeden once again storming towards the try line, a couple of pick and go’s later, and Kenny finds full back Cillian Redmond who ran the hardest of lines off the ruck scoring under the sticks making the conversion very straight forward for McMahon, 14-5. 

 

Lansdowne were hitting their stride now and it wasn’t long before they were back inside the Mary's '22 applying pressure in defence and attack. Mary's were looking to move the ball regardless of where they were on the pitch and it was off an attack from their '22 that would Lansdowne eventually score their 3rd try. Redmond gathered a Mary's chip kick and countered. The ball was hit up a couple of more times by the Lansdowne forwards with new recruits Juan Beukes and Jack Treanor more than happy to do the donkey work creating space for McMahon and Andy Marks who made a telling break into the Mary’s 22 and put Redmond away for his 2nd try. A more challenging conversion for McMahon proved no problem to him and we led 21-5 with the ref promptly blowing for half-time.

 

The start of the 2nd half was more of the same with Marys bravely trying to move the ball from anywhere and the Lansdowne defence applying plenty of pressure. An early Lansdowne penalty was kicked into the Marys 22  and the siege continued with several close in runners until Marys coughed up another penalty underneath their posts. This time we elected to tap and go and Paul Wilson who had a fine game through-out wriggled over to score our bonus point try and make it 28-5. Van Eeden galloped 30 metres off the kick off receipt and it looked like Treanor had put centre Harry O’Riordan through but the ref ruled the pass was forward. Off the subsequent scrum the Mary’s 10 chose to test our aerial defence with a lofty chip. Some amazing footwork from Redmond saw him gather the ball and the Marys defence was caught napping as he ran through and drew the last man to put Andy Marks away for our 5th try and Steve McMahon’s 5th conversion of the day. 

 

Lansdowne looked to attack again off the kick off but this time Mary's defence got the better of them and they were awarded a penalty outside our '22. The kick to the corner was too long and we were awarded a scrum which we drove forward but the ref wasn’t happy and awarded another penalty to Mary's. This time they ran the penalty and after several carries their scrum half touched down, 35-12. 

Another counter attack from Cillian Redmond gave replacement out-half Stephen Madigan the platform to attack. Madigan fed Paul Wilson who showed great leg drive to get in behind the defensive line and pop the ball inside to Tadgh Brophy who fended off a Mary's defender and ran the ball in from the 10 metre line to score a fine try on his debut for Lansdowne, 42-12. The game was effectively won, but Lansdowne weren’t done yet and soon after won themselves a lineout in the Mary's '22. This time they attacked Mary's around the fringes and prop Greg McGrath barrelled over for the 7th try, 49-12. The last 10 minutes played out as the game got a bit looser and Mary's clearly had a point to prove seeing us concede a couple of tries to leave the final score line 49-24. 

 

An encouraging performance with loads of potential and plenty still to work on as well as some great individual performances. Next up in the Leinster Senior Cup we host Terenure this Saturday in Lansdowne where a win will guarantee us qualification from our group so please come down and support your team.  

 

St. Mary's 24 Lansdowne 49, Lakelands
Lansdowne Scorers: Tries: James Kenny, Cillian Redmond 2, Andy Marks, Paul Wilson, Tadgh Brophy, Greg McGrath; Cons: Steve McMahon 5 Stephen Madigan 2.

HT: St. Marys 5 Lansdowne 21

 

Referee: Robbie Jenkinson

LANSDOWNE: Cillian Redmond, Cathal Eddy, Andy Marks, Harry O’Riordan, Sean Galvin, Steve McMahon, James Kenny, Jerry Cahir, Jack Treanor, Tom Connolly, Conor McMenamin, Juan Beukes, Jack Cooke (capt), Paul Wilson, Harry Van Eeden.
Replacements: Tim Cotter, Ben Popplewell, Greg McGrath, Luke O’Connor, Barry Fitzpatrick, Tadgh Brophy, Rory Parata, Stephen Madigan.