There’s only one thing better than watching Lansdowne beat Clontarf and that’s watching it alongside a friend from the visiting club. 
“That was forward, Ref”; “Lucky try, there …” ; “and there’s another lucky one …” ; “Ah come on, let us score”; “Ha, Lansdowne losers!”; “We hammered Belvo and Wesley, you know” ; “Jesus, that was a good score …” But best of all … “Well anyway, this competition doesn’t matter!”

What a cracking game! As President Gavin Lee summarized it perfectly later, "These are the days you play for ..."

This time the quality started from the kick off.  As you’d expect from AIL champions, Clontarf started with a bang, launching attack after attack on our line and for the opening ten minutes, we were held prisoner inside our own danger zone. Our defence, while courageous and vigorous, was a little unstructured at times, but so was their assault, so the courage and vigour did the job.  Eventually ‘Tarf had to resort to chips and grubber kicks and this allowed us to counterattack. As we approached the second quarter, the first wave of ‘Tarf’s  attack was spent and they had nothing to show for it. Now it was our turn.

We worked our way into their half with a combination of great tactical kicking from another prodigal son, outhalf for the day, Tom Daly, and powerful breaks down the middle from the likes of powerful second row, Juan Beukes. Other stand outs in the early stages included Juan's partner in the second row Matt Healy and openside wingforward, Ross O’Neill.

Frustrated and fatigued at the poor return on their attack, the visitors started to shed penalties and we found ourselves with a succession of lineouts on their 10m mark. Each was excellently executed, with recent acquisition from UCD, hooker Bobby Sheehan finding his target with jumpers Matt Healy and Jack Cooke. The third of these lineouts led to an equally well executed maul, driving over the line for Bobby to touch down with his first Lansdowne try. Tom Daly slotted the conversion from the corner with consummate ease (and years of practice presumably).  7 - 0

If you were thinking about popping out of the cinema to get popcorn now, big mistake. Our blood was up and though Tarf restarted with passion and purpose, we had the measure of their attack and we countered with a blur of short inter passing which brought us from inside our 10m line to inside their 22.  Ruck after quick ruck, scrum half Jack Matthews is spoiled for running options. First, charging prop Greg McGrath, then Tom Daly on the left, but the third ruck was a charm when captain Andy Marks came through at warp speed into a line and went over for our second try in five minutes.  12 – 0.

We continued our positive play in search of the third try, spinning the ball hither and tither, but some of the new recruits didn’t know their hither from their tither so we found ourselves back in our 22. ‘Tarf had channelled their frustration into a tighter attack now and it yielded results with a try at 35 minutes. An excellent conversion brought it to 12 – 7 and now we were the ones looking under pressure giving away (probably harsh) penalties in the scrum and several more (less harsh) elsewhere.  In our eagerness to get into half time without conceding another try, we conceded a few more penalties, followed unfortunately by one, then a second yellow card. In all the confusion, Cool Hand Tom somehow managed to slot over a long range penalty. 15 – 7.  But our diminishing head count led to the visitors’ inevitable second try. 15 – 12 HT.

There was still plenty of time on the yellow card timer as the second half restarted, so we started with conservative, up the jumper rugby. But it wasn't enough to contain the League Champions and they break out of their half with an excellently worked kick and chase as their winger goes over in the corner. 15 – 17 (their conversion bounces off the upright). Now our ‘Tarf guests are starting to gloat, reciting their scores against Belvedere and Wesley, but their glee is short lived as we get a penalty in kicking distance and Tom does the honours again. 18 – 17.

Back to full strength now and with fresh legs from the bench, normal service is finally restored.  We resume our varied, lightning fast and lethal attack parking ourselves in the ‘Tarf half for an extended period. But unlike their earlier efforts, our attack pays dividends.  From a scrum in the middle of the pitch, Harry Van Eeden picks and runs on the blind side, passes to half back Jack who pops it up to Andy Marks at full pelt. Andy looks like he’s through and it takes a dubiously high covering tackle to slow him down, but not before he off loads it to Juan Beukes steaming along on his shoulder and he goes over in the corner. Even my Tarf pal conceded that it was an excellent try. 23 – 17.

The remaining 30 minutes may have been scoreless, but they were none the less enthralling and heroic for all that. “That really was Big Boy Rugby!” acknowledged another ‘Tarf supporter, before the stinger, “but of course this competition doesn’t really matter!”

A cracking match played with real energy, courage and flair. “These are the days you play for,” Quite right, Pres.

Match Report - Brian Whelan
 
Match photos can be viewed here. - Michael O'Brien