The match began with both sides grappling to assert dominance, with Terenure College gaining the early territorial advantage. However, their execution let them down when an early penalty kick missed touch, giving Lansdowne an opportunity to counterattack from inside their own 10-meter line.  Conceding territory and possession but counterattacking mercilessly seemed to be our cunning plan for the whole night.

Terenure’s scrum looked dominant, leaving Lansdowne hooker Ross Smith regretting his decision to fill in; apparently, he just wanted "a nice run out before the marathon!" But just as the ball emerged from Terenure's scrum, a lazy pass was pounced on by Lansdowne’s lightning-footed centre, Adam Daly, who intercepted it and ran the length of the pitch to score under the posts. William McEvoy added the conversion, putting Lansdowne 0-7 ahead after just 10 minutes.

Despite the early score, the match remained evenly balanced. Within five minutes, another Lansdowne counterattack broke down with a dropped pass, allowing Terenure to capitalize with an interception, scoring a try under our posts to level the game at 7-7. Lansdowne’s defence, however, was immense, with wing forwards Will Sadlier at 6 and Alexis Olivier (the latest addition to the "Sexy Lexy" brigade) tackling relentlessly. Possession and territory were limited for Lansdowne, but their robust defence kept Terenure at bay.

An unfortunate incident from the sidelines undid Lansdowne’s next promising attack. In a rare foray into Terenure’s half, William McEvoy, the veteran (he won’t mind that) centre and "Ringmaster," threw a long pass out to the wing, skipping two players. But a moment of over-exuberance from a sideline coach yelling "go on Boyler!" caused Rory "Whisper His Name" Boyle to momentarily lose focus and the ball bounced harmlessly into touch. Boyler shot a dirty look at the sideline, instructing the fans, “Please keep your comments to yourselves in future.”

A few minutes later, as if to give the crowd a second chance, McEvoy threw another long pass out to Boyle, and this time, amid a respectful hush from the sidelines, Boyle safely gathered it and scored in the corner. A Lansdowne fan correctly noted, "If he’d missed that, he was Donald Ducked!" So, Lansdowne took the lead 7 - 12 after 25 minutes.

By now, Lansdowne were emerging as the stronger side, with their defence impenetrable and their discipline exemplary. It has to be said, captain Michael Whelan minimised the penalties against us by keeping the lines of communication open with the referee. Though our scrums and handling errors slowed our progress, a yellow card for Terenure on the half-hour mark was a sign that there were more points to come our way soon. Our scrums may have been shaky, but the lineouts were flawless, with Ross Smith’s pinpoint accurate throws consistently finding jumpers Michael Whelan and Fionan Teevan.  From one such lineout, Whelan made a powerful break and offloaded to number 8 Arthur Henry. The move broke down in midfield due to some anonymous fumbling, but after a comedy of errors from Terenure, the ball emerged again with right-wing Michael Mulligan, who showed exceptional pace and footwork to outsmart the defence and score Lansdowne’s third try. McEvoy slotted the conversion, extending the lead to 7 - 19.

Despite a spirited effort from Terenure to close the half strongly, Lansdowne’s defence held firm. The half ended with Lansdowne 12 points ahead, heading into the break for a well-earned breather and lashings of coach Mark “Face” Quinn’s wine gums.

Second half started as the first had ended, with another of our fleet-footed back three tearing a hole in Terenure's defence. This time it was fullback Patrick Burke who broke from within our own 22 and scorched to the try line, Will adding the extra's again to make it 7 - 24 with the second half only five minutes old. And we only had to wait another five minutes to stretch our lead further. Our pressure on their scrum inside their half led to another series of unfortunate mistakes by Terenure. A lesser attacking side might have started to relax, but blindside wing forward, Will Sadlier saw his chance and kicked through on their knock on, cruelly punishing their defender’s mistake to touch down under the posts.  The score moved to 7 - 31.

With the pressure somewhat off, there were noticeable positional shifts in the Lansdowne backline. Coach Adam "Thai Green" Curry quizzed McEvoy, who had been busily marshalling the young bucks all night, what was he doing at fullback. McEvoy simply replied, "I just need a bleedin' break!"  (No offence to full backs intended, I'm sure!)

Next, it was time for center Adam Daly's second try. He made yet another lightning break from well inside Lansdowne's half, leaving dejected defenders backpedalling in a desperate attempt to stop him. With the game now well in hand, this time we will forgive McEvoy, evidently still enjoying his "break," for attempting a drop-kick conversion that unfortunately missed. 7 - 36. 

As the contest approached the end of normal time, Lansdowne added one final try. Still struggling in the scrums and well inside our own 22, number 8 Arthur Henry picked the ball from a rapidly reversing scrum and broke up the blind side. He cut inside, effortlessly handing off flailing defenders as if swatting flies. His pace was so impressive that it took the speed of winger Michael Mulligan to keep up and gather the offload when Arthur was finally brought down. Mulligan scored under the posts, and in spite of the likely ease of the conversion, McEvoy took no chances this time, executing a conventional conversion with ease to make it 7 - 43.

In injury time, with the contest well and truly over, Lansdowne conceded a yellow card — possibly a club record for Daragh Linehan, who received it just 30 seconds after coming on. Terenure capitalized on the advantage to score a consolation try. The final score read Terenure College RFC 14 – 43 Lansdowne FC.  Nice.

 PS. Special mention to scrum half Paul Kinney and replacement hooker Luis Castro, for absolutely no other reason than that they asked nicely.

Match Report - Brian Whelan