This season opener in Dooradoyle promised to be a close encounter as both clubs hoped to get off to the best possible start. Even if each side looked a little ring-rusty at times, the game delivered plenty of excitement right to the very end. Unfortunately.

A beautiful day, a perfect pitch and at 2.30pm the 2024- 2025 season opened as Stephen Madigan kicked off for what we travellers all hoped would be a perfect start.

The opening phases were very encouraging. Lansdowne drew on our gritty pack’s combative style and seasoned backline’s tactical sense to keep the home team pinned down to their 22. Our phases were building momentum well when Garryowen were pinged for slowing down the ball after and Stephen slotted over the first penalty of the game and the year. 0 – 3 after five minutes.

We renewed our attack for what felt like an age.  It was like The Siege of Troy, with us throwing everything at their defences to no avail. We just didn’t have a Wooden Horse. If anything, Garryowen were the ones with the surprises up their sleeves. We seemed to be building to another few points when an over ambitious long pass to the wing was anticipated by the defenders’ left wing. He burst from within his own 10m to sprint the length of the pitch and score under our posts.  We were behind 7 – 3 little more than ten minutes in, but their try had done more damage than just on the scoreboard. Winger Sean Gavin sustained what looked like a hamstring injury chasing down their winger and ended his game prematurely. Let’s hope for a speedy recovery, Sean.

Play resumed in their 22 from the restart and perhaps stung by the intercept, we had a little more edge now.  Leader by example as well as by title, captain Jack Cooke stole the first of many of their lineouts and we set up a series of rolling mauls and short breaks towards the Garryowen line. But this time our tempo and urgency were too much for the hosts and they didn’t get a chance to set up their fortress defence and fittingly, it was Captain Cooke that finished an excellent attack under their posts.

With the score a more respectable looking 7 -10, our eager efforts to extend the lead fell afoul of the referee and we started to give away penalties like snuff at a wake. Grateful for the plentiful gifts of easy exits from their own danger zone, it wasn’t long then before Garryowen clawed their way back up the pitch to within kickable range of the next penalty. 10 – 10. But worse, their confidence was building as ours began to ebb and the final ten minutes of the half belonged to them. Garryowen did better in the looser play than we did and as the first half entered injury time a frantic exchange ended with the hosts getting a turnover from a ruck just inside our half. The ball came out on the right and in fairness to the Lansdowne cover, we kept taking their runners down, but somehow, they kept finding an extra man and offloading excellent if improbable passes. Ultimately, it was their winger who finished off a breathtaking passage of play with a deserved try in the corner. Their outhalf rubbed salt in our wounds with an excellent conversion, sending us into the break 17 – 10 down.

The first half finished with a flood of penalties and the second half started in much the same vein; now our scrum was more settled, but our rucking apparently caused offence. But we were playing more fluidly now, and we were also winning plenty of their lineouts to sustain our flagging confidence. Sadly, just as our game started to rebuild, the Garryowen pack scrambled back a ball from one of their loose lineouts and, masters of the speedy counterattack, they capitalized with another try under our posts. 

At 24 – 10 and the last quarter beckoning, it looked like we had a big mountain to climb. But the ref, following some sort of Pauline Conversion and deciding he needed to restore some balance to the game, awarded Lansdowne a penalty try from a scrum. No warning, he ran straight under the posts, arm aloft! If this reporter (a mere back) was confused by the earlier stream of scrum penalties, the entire band of supporters - home and visitors alike - were dumbfounded by this one. Nevertheless, in true Lansdowne fashion, we accepted the referee’s wise decision with grace and our assault on Comeback Mountain was well under way at 24 – 17.

Our play loosened up now and with the referee continuing to turn his ire on the hosts, we entered a purple patch. The ball was making its way out to our backs more quickly and the strength and depth of our midfield and back three came to the fore. So there was an air of happy inevitability when the duo of centres Rory Parata and Andy Marks broke through the Garryowen defences over and over again and finally Andy scored under the posts. It was 24 – 24 as we entered the final ten minutes and finally optimism started to bubble through the ranks of traveling supporters.

Back in control again, we edged ahead with a penalty right on full time, 24 – 27.  Could it be the perfect start? But anyone who thinks this or any Munster side is finished fighting before the final whistle blows is fooling themselves. Garryowen scrambled, wrestled and ferreted for any ball they could and sure enough they won a penalty when one of our players was exposed on our 22. The distance was kickable to secure a draw, but the hosts wanted that perfect start to the season as much as we did and they kicked for the corner, opting to trust their hitherto shaky lineouts. Curiously perhaps, their lineout went uncontested and Garryowen moved the ball forward and into the centre of the pitch. Now five minutes into injury time, their tails were up.  Again taking a chance that hadn’t worked for them earlier in the game, their out half chipped over our rush defence.  The weight of his kick was good, the bounce even better and their full back went over for an excellent, if heart breaking try at the death.

29 - 27 Full time

Worthy winners on the day, Garryowen made the very most of the scraps of ball they had in the first half and played with flair and ambition in the second half to edge us out. But we showed excellent passages of play too and even if we wanted for a bit of variety or ambition in our attack.

Welcome to the new season and see you all at our first home match against UCD!