v Barnhall
UCD J1 8 - Barnhall 14
On a cold and blustery afternoon in Thornfield, the top two teams in the league clashed. Table toppers Barnhall were top of the league with UCD in second.
In what turned out to be a low scoring and scrappy fixture, UCD never really got in to the swing of things. The team was bolstered by a number of U-20's who had the weekend off. Barnhall won an early penalty and to make the score 0-3 and then Simon Gillespie responded with a fine effort to make it 3-3.
With half time approaching UCD conceded a further two penalties to make the score 3-9 and in a position to strike in the second half down the hill. When played resumed and with the penalty count mounting Barnhall got a try in the left hand corner to put them out to a 14-3 lead.
UCD rallied however and a line out on the Barnhall 10 meter line was quickly spread wide through the centres and a strong insertion by full back Kevin Quinlan was finished off with Michael Fanning running over from the 22 to make the score 8-14. This ended up being the final score and a disappointing result for a team which is ever improving.
Decisions didn't always go our way but hopefully the team will learn from this. The J1's next game is on Sunday 25th in Belfield against DLSP.
Shane Geraghty (J1 Manager)