The final game before Christmas, playing against an opponent very much in contention in this league who with a win could draw level with you at the top. These were the ingredients in advance of this fixture that made it interestingly close you would have thought.

What transpired was very much the opposite with J1’s putting away an opponent who was undercooked, lacking key personnel and who ran out of steam very much in the second half. That said you can only beat what is put in front of you and the J1’s did just that in comprehensive fashion with a ruthless attacking display scoring 11 tries in the process and pulling clear at the top of this division from their pursuers.
The weather conditions for this game were fine and it was not as Baltic as the previous week. However, there was a strong breeze which was in favor of St Mary's in the first half which Lansdowne played into and did so with great effect. They opened the scoring after just four minutes with a good run by center Dylan O’Keeffe who found scrum half Jack Matthews on his inside to score under the posts and with the conversion added by Tom Bohan it was 7-0.

There were ominous signs for St Mary's with possession going backwards and little in the form of territory. However, to their great credit it was they who struck back after eight minutes following Lansdowne giving away a silly penalty for obstruction it was taken quickly and found its way out to their right winger who outpaced the defenders to score in the right-hand corner. The conversion was missed but nevertheless the score was back to 7-5 game on. That scoreline remained the same until the sixteenth minute when Lansdowne produced a flowing back movement. The ball found its way into the hands of Stephen McMahon full back who with a lovely deft inside flick pass found that man Matthews again to score under the posts. With Bohan’s conversion the scoreline was now 14-5. This was to become 19-5 after a good run by Ronan Shaw offloading to the supporting players who in turn found Matthews who scored his third try of the day within the opening twenty-five minutes.

Mary's although playing with the wind were under an awful lot of pressure with no real continuity to their game and things were to get worse for them following a good kick by Harry Coughlin which was picked up and capitalized on by Matt Hodgkins who made a great run to score and was one of the standout performers in the opening half. The bonus point was achieved in the first half an hour and from a coaching point of view this is all that could have been asked for in terms of this fixture.

That was not it though in this half as a further score would follow a throw in from Tim Cotter which found Luke O'Connor setting up a rolling maul allowing flanker Alexis Olivier to touch down making it 31-5. 

The referee played on with injury time and to their credit St. Mary's managed to gain good field position within the Lansdowne ’22. They threatened to score and indeed they did from close in courtesy of their sub prop forward. He had a fair bit to do and finished well.  Also, a beautiful touchline conversion from the Mary’s 10 left the score at halftime at 31 points to 12.

The J1 team were to be complimented on their performance against the breeze and as a contest one felt the game was more or less over with the bonus points secure. The team nevertheless wanted to put on a complete performance and were possibly smarting from our seniors suffering defeat against Mary's in the AIL on Friday night.

The second half began with a Tom Bohan try after six minutes following another flowing back movement with Bohan taking a flat pass from Matthews to breach the Defence and touch down. He added the conversion moving the score to 38 -12. The J1’S were by now completely dominant and next up to score was out half Stephen Madigan again following a good pass from Matthews 43-12. The floodgates were opening and with incessant attacking from the home team they gained good field position. A lineout overthrow followed which was gathered by Rick Van Dijk who barged his way over from 10 meters out. McMahon converted to make the score 50-12.

There were still over twenty minutes to play in this fixture. The unfortunate St. Mary's team were pushed back from the kickoff by a series of penalties given away. Tactical wind assisted touch finders put the J1’s in good field position and it was from one of these set plays that the rolling maul led to Robbie Kidney the other flanker touching down with the conversion added by McMahon making the score 57-12.

Could it get worse for St Mary's, unfortunately the answer was to be yes following repeated penalties one of their players was yellow carded. This allowed the incessant pressure from the J1 to continue leading to a line out close in which George Morris was to profit from in touching down on the right-hand side 62-12. 
There was still time left with the bench emptied and in the final minute the last score of the second half was to fall to replacement Richie Allen who showed a bit of pace in scoring from open play and with the conversion by McMahon left the final score at 69-12.

This game was a real statement of what this team is about, and it was a very good performance, especially in the first half against the wind. They did not give their opponent a sniff of any real involvement in this game and in fact had secured a bonus point early on. This result, as I said earlier, puts them six points clear at the top of the division and on recent displays this is no doubt no more than they deserve. I am not going to single anyone out for praise this week as again it was the total of all the parts of this team rather than individuals. But I will say that they look like an outfit that really enjoy playing with each other. This shows on the field in expressing their skills and in this match scoring eleven tries which is good going.

That is, it for the Christmas break and the business end of the season resumes in January with five games yet to play in this division. Their next fixture will be the reverse fixture against St. Mary's and no doubt that will be a harder prospect than this game was. St Mary's who coincidentally had a club away tour will have a much stronger team for that fixture with a lot of their regulars back. This will take place after the senior AIL Game on the 11th of January at 5pm in Templeville Rd and let’s get up there to support them.