v Unidare
(05 Feb 2010)
The Super Fours road-show has largely been unreported on so far this season. So it was felt that with a renaissance of sorts taking place in the lower echelons of Collidge Rugby that the dust was wiped off the typewriter and the Super Four Match Reports came back out to the rugby loving public.
The Fours have been on a rather solid run and are now sitting in 2nd place in Pool D. New coaching staffs were put in place after much deliberation by self appointed Director of Rugby, Frederick ‘I love politics’ Gilligan over the off season. The new coaching ticket was given the Collidge Stamp of approval by legend Super Four supremo Dave ‘See you next Tuesday Ref’ Jones. So the dynamic duo of Enda O’Connor and Willie Doran were charged with revitalising the Collidge Super Four franchise. The first steps of this included the captaincy being passed onto Tom ‘The Hartigans Wrecking Ball’ Hill. With coaching staff, management and captain in place, the fours went on the recruitment drive. Overseas investment from Dubai never materialised, even though both younger Gilligan brothers were sent abroad to raise such capital…neither have returned just yet.
With a squad in place that consisted of old and new faces plus some foreign signings from the Erasmus camp, the J4’s under the watchful eye of W-Enda were put through their paces in a gruelling September. The season did not start as planned though for the wonder duo with losses against Trinity, DLSP and Unidare shaking the very core of this team. But four wins before Christmas left the Fours in somewhat rude health going into 2010, this was further backed up after Christmas with solid victories against league minnows Bective and Tallaght. This left Collidge sitting in 2nd place 2 points ahead of Unidare in third. Which brings us up to the mouth-watering collision that was played out on Saturday in the Four’s spiritual home the back pitch (marsh-bog) in Thornfield.
With the scene set and a almost a full deck of cards to pick from (the lack of our two 1st choice nines a slight hindrance, Shoey if you are reading this please do call) the fours took to the field. Although a notable absentee it must be said was one half of the Louis Walsh inspired double act that is W-enda. A dodgy strawberry daiquiri in the Dragon Bar the night before had left Enda hors de combat and unable to leave his sick bed. Reeling from this pre-match blow, Willie rallied the troops and Fred gave his pre-match speech via a satellite link from the Big Apple. The Tom Hill Show led the troops into the ensuing melee with a performance that Dave Jones described as frantic, inspired and at times just plain mental. Collidge started strongly and with Wardy pulling the strings at ten, a Collidge foray into the opposing 22 led to an attacking 5 metre line out. Cometh the hour and cometh the man, take a bow hooker Olan ‘Highfield Boyyyy’ Kinnealy and No.8 John Geelan who provided the ball on a plate for Captain Hill who powered over. 5-0 Collidge. Dave ‘I’ll just have one’ Wardy has been known to miss some sitters in his time in the kicking role of this team, but he made no mistake and slotted over the ensuing conversion. From the re-start the fours fell asleep and gave away 3 cheap points 7-3 Collidge.
With some stern words about discipline from senior figures with less than exemplary discipline records, Collidge tore back down the hill after the re-start. Up front was turning into a real dog fight and clean ball was becoming a thing of the past for stand in 9 Jack Prendergast who was playing a blinder. After some great groundhog work at the breakdown by Fud ‘veggie burger please’ O’Higgins and our tyro tight head prop Paddy Barrett, Wardy was presented with another attempt at goal. 10-3 Collidge. Again from the kick off Collidge fell asleep, and cheaply gave away possession, allowing Unidare to ghost in for the softest of tries this team has conceded all season. Heads were turned back on by some disgruntled looks amongst the back-row and centres, as the realisation quickly loomed that Unidare would not give up 2nd place without a fight.
Unfortunately Brendan ‘Rocky’ Kenneally took this all a bit too literally and after Unidare had danced on his face with a couple of size 12 boots at a ruck, the ref took a ‘shoot first ask questions later’ approach and sent ‘Rocky’ and the Unidare scrum half off, with straight reds. Collidge were really in a dogfight now and buckled down in what became a rather disjointed end to the 1st half, with both teams down to 14 and Unidare persisting with playing with no front row and an unopposed scrum.
Collidge playing up the hill in the 2nd half and into the slowly dipping January sun started poorly with an over zealous approach in attempting to run the ball at every opportunity leading to dropped balls and poorly executed passes. Unidare pushed themselves in front 13-10 after the ref took a dislike to some Collidge rucking. Would UCD capitulate now that they were behind for the first time, instead the dominant UCD backrow forced a turnover and won a penalty in their own 22. Now what usually happens in this situation is your ten kicks for territory. To run a penalty in your own 22 with well over 20 minutes to play some may say madness others say pure Super Four genius. Wardy tapped and went, throwing a skip pass out to Paul ‘St Tropez’ Boyband’ Reilly who delicately slipped Garvey through the tightest of gaps. A beautiful dummy followed from Garvey which fooled half of his own pack as well as the Unidare fullback, left the Engineering post-grad geek with a clear run for the line. A Serge Blanco, Fijian magic, or Leinster vs Toulouse 2006 Dennis Hickie esque moment you may take your pick, the Fours had danced with danger and emerged with 5 points. 15-13 Collidge. Again though Unidare came back and scored after some dogged defence by Collidge including some bone shuddering hits by Hornshaw and January transfer window signing Chris ‘Dixie Chicks’ White from Notre Dame Indiana. (On a side note Chris becomes the first American to pull on the St Patrick’s blue of Collidge for the Super Fours, part of a rich world culture embraced within the ethos of the team). Fred was actually in New York putting pen to paper on the 6 month loan deal at the very moment Chris presumed he was back in High School playing line backer and smashed into the unassuming Unidare 13. Unfortunately Unidare eventually squeezed over in the corner, 15-18 to Unidare. Backs to the wall defending continued again for Collidge as Unidare pushed for the decisive score to put them-selves clear. Hill, substitutes Anto Tuffy and Evin ‘Paddy Wallace’ Keaveney tackled everything that moved, and after some important carries from the pack, Collidge found themselves in the Unidare 22. A penalty was kicked to touch and again Olan ‘Highfield boyyyy’ found his man in the sky John Geelan, the maul lurched towards the Unidare line, Breener screeched encouragement from the side line as he was nursing a Smurfit related injury. As it looked like Unidare had stalled the rolling maul, Tom Hill suddenly emerged round the blind side to be smashed over the line with assistance of Mick Barton and scrum half Jack Prendergast. 20-18 to Collidge, 2 minutes to play.
Collidge had not dealt with re-starts well so far in this humdinger of a game, so the kick off was met with a hushed silence from the throbbing Collidge support on the side line. Possession was key and no penalties being conceded were crucial. Collidge rumbled their powerful ‘Sherman Tank’ maul towards the half way line after a superb take by Barton, into the Unidare half it continued, surely now the whistle would go. But then disaster, a penalty in the Unidare half, no-one was quite sure for what, a Collidge player off his feet at the ruck it was muttered. It got worse ‘Paddy Wallace’ intervened with a cheeky stalling of the ball, horror to all as an extra ten yards was awarded by the ref. The pen was now at the Collidge 10 metre line. Last play, it would be all over next time the ball went dead. Breener couldn’t hack anymore on the touchline and was sobbing into Cuds shoulder. Willie and Jonesy looked on wistfully, all this work surely would not be robbed in the dying seconds. Up stepped the Unidare ten who struck it sweetly it looked good, but it veered right of the post, ‘knock it out’ was the shout from Jonesy. McDowell the ex-Gonzaga Panther player and Chris Notre Dames finest had a minor mix up behind the posts as both player seemed reluctant to deal with the oval ball, but a catastrophe was avoided as the ball was finally booted out. The final whistle was greeted with exhausted bodies and sheepish grins, but as Vince Lombardi or maybe it was Fred Gilligan said, good teams win ugly. Ugly it certainly was at times but it was always entertaining. As always the Super Fours played wit the fighting spirit and togetherness that has them to date dizzily close to the summit of Pool 4. The Super Four road-show marches on anyhow, table toppers DLSP are up next on the 13th of February.