UCD J1’s 72 – 12 Naas
As is the case most weeks Collidge were forced into some late positional changes namely the mass movement of forwards into the backline. For Franciosi, O’Rourke et al this is old news and already the seeds of change are beginning to flower. Pre-match door slamming and heavy metal music have given way to Beethoven, earl gray and discussions on the amount of water necessary to achieve a perfect moist curl…
Collidge making their debut on ‘the mat’ kicked off and were soon busying the scorers when Stephen O’Dwyer latched onto an excellent line break from Dan Herlihy. Kevin ‘the artist’ Quinlan drew the conversion between the uprights for a 7-0 lead. Collidge repelled some well orchestrated Naas attacks before moving up field and blending some excellent forward play with precise and direct running from the em errr… backs.
Fresh from a spell on loan with the SF 49er’s Alex Franciosi produced one of the moments of the match when fielding a kick inside his own 22 and racing some 70 yards to set up UCD’s second score. The artist turned angler as Quinlan hooked the conversion well wide (Brazil was closer).
The home side increased the intensity of their attacks and on 20 minutes some excellent interplay culminated in Morgan Hickey Crowe crossing for a superb score and reaffirming that from 15 yards out he’s as dangerous as a hunting trip with Dick Chaney.
With 10 minutes of the half remaining Collidge continued to dominate the physical exchanges, Quinlan the beneficiary of some excellent rucking close to the Naas line, moving on to a sweeping pass from Damien Browne to skip in for his second try.
A 40 point lead at half time was a fair reflection on UCD’s dominance. Clearly benefiting from last weeks excursion/melee in Sutton the eagerness and aggression of the pack was very much to the fore. Before leaving Sutton, this journalist asked 40 horses if the Suttonian forwards were nice guys. Response: 1 yeahhh, 39 neeeeeaghhs…
The college server prevents me from detailing all of the UCD tries [13] but there were some highlights worthy of mention. The performance of the ever improving college front five complete with super subs Eddie Conlon and Rory O’Connor allows the back row and half backs the time and space to attack defences effectively. Outside half Kevin Quinlan continues to improve (though his kicking needs some refinement) and his individual try 20 minutes from time was a score of genuine class. Joe McGinley and Alex Franciosi returned to the side after injury and were very positive additions. As for ‘wild’ Paddy Conlon, (Sligo’s answer to Mick Fitzgibbon) the openside had another productive afternoon though I would venture he enjoyed the trip to Sutton more.
One slight criticism of an otherwise excellent display was the concession of two scores in the second half but the positive elements of the performance bode well and with the metro cup first round a week away the trip to d6W it looks like a genuine opportunity to begin a cup run… (apparently Nelson Mandella is cr*p+ing himself. The last time Collidge won the metro he went to prison for 25 years)
Notes: on the 3rd of March Gavin Telford turns 29 and thus a bus trip to Carlow has been arranged in his honour. By coincidence the J1’s are due to play Carlow, in Carlow on that very day (thanks to Shane Geraghty’s Brian Epstein like managerial skills). J1 chef and occasional loose forward Dave Gilchrist will be preparing buffet style packed lunches for the squad, please inform him of any dietary requirements.