J4 v Stillorgan

 

J4 11 – 0 Stillorgan

The Super 4’s were back on the road this weekend, but only around the corner to Bird Avenue for the most local of local Darby’s. We assemble under a relatively bright but gray sky and the team was hopeful that the weather would hold for this round of battle. But as we took to the training pitch we realised that we were in for a long afternoon at the coal face of Junior rugby in Leinster. The ground was saturated and it was like trying to run in slushy ice. One had to be equally as careful of not slipping as of not getting your boot stuck down into the deep muck. But even so on the back of our great victory last week we were bristling with confidence and self belief as we lined out.

Padraic Mulpiter captained the team in the absence of Gilly (and my ongoing fight for fitness) and we began the game by playing downhill, although this hill is nothing to the one we face out on Thornfield for 40 minutes of all our home games. The pitch itself was equally as bad as the training pitch and as the ball was kicked off we few on the sidelines felt a bit like the Generals at the Battle of the Somme urging our foot soldiers to go over the top and into the jaws of the enemy.

Indeed over they went each and every one of the brave 15 in the St. Patrick’s Blue lead by the mighty pack. Barry Sheahan, Paul Dempsey, Matt Leonard and Eoghan Moriarty led the charge and stormed into the Stillorgan camp forcing them back down the hill from whence they came. Immediate and sustained pressure have been a hallmark of this team at the start of matches and today was no different. Within 10 minutes we had our reward and were awarded a penalty in front of the posts which Padraic slotted over to put us 3 - 0 up.

At this stage the rain began to pelt down and the Stillorgan team could have charged ladies what lunch 10 quid each for the pleasure of swimming around the pitch in revitalising mud.

Stillorgan fought back and their charging number 8 was brought down more than once by debutant Morgan Walsh and the old war dog himself Mick Barton playing at number 8. They pushed us back up the hill and looked dangerous for a while. But the back three of Cahalane, Ruddy and Reilly covered fantastically and eventually Padraic got a chance to kick the ball downfield giving us position. This time the ball came off the top of the Stillorgan lineout into the hands of Matt. It was quickly recycled and let out wonderfully by Cockroche who was in for Gilly at scrum half. Out through the hands of Padraic, before being crashed up by big Tom Hill then recycled out to Rob Lee at second centre and into the speeding Paul Reilly for a try in the corner. 8 - 0 Collidge and half time could not have come a moment t to soon.

The second half was tough but Niall Collins just back from the Alps was like a phoenix rising from the mud for every lineout and despite the conditions we didn’t loose a single lineout all day and even turned over a few of theirs. This was of great assistance as was the boot of Padraic Mulpiter who was sending Stillorgan trekking back out of position over and over again. And it was from just such a kick that we worked ourselves into a position to land three more points from the24 carat golden boot of Padraic!

Mark Gilligan came on for Ross McMahon and Andrew Hornshaw replaced Paul Ruddy on the wing. Collidge almost lost their clean sheet when the Stillorgan winger who had been threatening all day eventually broke through and raced for the line only to run straight over it and then dive for the dead ball zone much to the despair of the Stillorgan crowd. The pitch was so muddy that he had simply not seen the line and ran for the deadball line which was still visible. Eventually the whistle was blown and having recorded a second consecutive clean sheet we retired rapidly from the battlefields of the Somme to the warmth of the changing room.

We owe a dept of gratitude to Aoife and Eimear our physio’s, David Jones our manager and John Shuttleworth our coach for sticking it out on such a miserable day. Kenny Forde came along despite his injury and we welcomed Daragh Cahalane into the fold of supporters this week. Missing though was Gilly senior prompting rumours of favouritism as his youngest son wasn’t playing only the two older ones, myself and Mark have been telling ourselves all weekend it was just the weather!!!

The Super 4 Roadshow trundles on to Lakelands next week to face second from top Parkmore where all players and supporters will be needed as we fight on for a coveted place in the top two and the play off’s!!

Fred Gilligan.