v Carlow
Carlow J1 19 – 6 J1 UCD
‘My attitude to line out calls having always been that of a child to a butterfly rather than that of an entomologist, that is to say, a greater interest in its passing beauty than in its Latin name.’
The words of Collidge second rower Connor O’Keefe on the importance of the line outs and their calls.
Its unlikely O’Keefe would have assumed full culpability for the malfunctioning set piece had Gavin buzz fizz Telford not turned 21 on the day of the match.
Telfords man of the match performance was as exquisite in its skill as it was brutal in its physicality. Or as Paddy Conlon put it, ‘like Picasso with a baseball bat.’
She dresses like a whooor and thinks like a pimp added Eddie Conlon (sporting a rather offensive sports casual jacket and talking about something else entirely).
Though both the line out and scrum were under early pressure UCD managed to open the scoring with a well struck Kevin Quinlan penalty. Quinlan and his opposite number (I think his name was Trevor) exchanged penalties moments later before Collidge conceded a rather soft try late in the first half despite being the stronger side in broken play, captain Matt Nagle and number 8 David Gilchrist to the fore.
A penalty for a late tackle on O’Keefe was reversed after the referee refused to afford O’Keefe time to complete a victim impact statement. (O’Keefe has just spent 2 days at the Peter Shanley crash course in ‘how to debate effectively with referees’ – modules include; what about my constitutional rights ref,?when you say you saw me hit him, did you actually see me hit him? the sit down protest and we want neither a scrum nor a line out)
In the second half Collidge upped the tempo of their attacks. The set piece improved dramatically, Eddie Conlon and Ger Moran applying constant pressure on the Carlow scrum whilst Conor O’Keefe and Ger O’Rourke pilfered several Carlow throws.
The improvement in the set piece produced plenty of good ball however the decision making was below par and following a sustained period of dominance and no return collidge went further behind through a well taken Carlow drop goal.
Paul Gilligan (the j1’s January signing) continued his excellent run of form at scrum half and was unfortunate not to score late in the game.
A frustrating afternoon for Collidge despite a number of encouraging performances.
A suggestion by Gavin Telford that buzz fizz be changed to signify 2 and 4 rather than 3 and 5 was passed unanimously.