v Cill Dara
Congratulations to the UCD team for winning last weekend’s Round Robin Final 19-10 against Cill Dara in Coolmine RFC.
Match report - UCD vs. Cill Dara - Round Robin Cup Final - 30th March 2008
Summer officially began at one o'clock in the morning and as a result left both teams with an hour less sleep before this final showdown. It took the form of the cup final between division three and development league teams. The neutral venue chosen was Coolmine RFC on the north side of the city and all participants arrived at the venue early, in good spirits and in one piece! With the sun shining the teams took their time warming up before the two o'clock kick off time and everyone seemed to be ready to give their all in their final competitive game of the season.
The UCD team was without many of their regular players through unavoidable circumstances but thankfully were able to draw on their strong reserve players and maintained their depth and strength at the same time. It was called to be a thirteen a-side game and with 35 minutes a-side and no wing-forwards, subs were going to be needed to recoup tired legs.
Cill Dara sprung to action right from the start and caught the students sleeping through an immediate score from the kick off which was achieved from strong running from the Cill Dara backline. This was unconverted but it proved that these were two teams that had the capacity to score and UCD knew that to overcome their division three rivals they would need to work together. UCD responded in earnest and put their initial set back out of their minds. This resulted with a penalty in the opposition twenty two. After a series of perfect line outs UCD got into mauling mode and after a powerful drive the ball was deemed to be held up over the line. The resulting scrum enabled the ball to be picked up at the back by UCD's number 8, Laura Holopainen and after several phases of play Michela Este crashed over the line to give UCD an answering score. This was converted by UCD captain and out half Caoimhe Finnegan. The next score was to closely follow as Cill Dara kicked off after the conversion it was caught by Michela Este who ran around the opposition right to the five yard line. This resulted in several more phases of play after which Finnegan managed to ground the ball just to the left of the uprights. Again a conversion was expertly kicked and UCD went in search of another score to try and distance themselves from the Cill Dara team who never gave up testing the UCD defence. Both teams were very evenly matched and neither wanted to concede any ground, this meant tackles were hard and rucks were strongly contested. This ensured frequent injury breaks and Cill Dara had to make use of their ample substitutes. The final points of the first half were to be scored by the students in the form of another gain line break by centre Michela Este who powered over the line, leaving the Cill Dara defence in her wake. The first half ended 19 – 5.
The second half didn't begin nearly as dramatically as the first with scrappy handling on both sides. The number of line-outs (which had been very high in the first half due to the kicking game adopted by both teams) diminished and the number of scrums dramatically increased. The nerves of both teams were beginning to show but no player gave less than 100 per cent effort. The second half saw UCD use their sole replacement in the form of Emma Kiernan replacing Grainne Desmond as winger. However both teams were visibly tiring by this point and a lapse in concentration by the UCD defence, which had stood impermeable for so long was broken through by Cill Dara and although it remained unconverted meant they were that much closer to overtaking UCD on the scoreboard. The final whistle came just in time as UCD were still in Cill Dara's twenty two but were taking no chances on a team that they knew from experience could score form anywhere on the pitch. The final score was UCD 19 – Cill Dara 10
Team List
1 – Julie Campbell
2 – Heather Henry
3 – Fiona O'Brien
4 – Sarah Bruggeman
5 – Floriane Chartier
8 – Laura Holopainen
9 – Meghan Tyner
10 – Caoimhe Finnegan (C)
11 – Amy Ní Chiardubhain
12 – Michela Este
13 – Olive Butler
14 – Grainne Desmond
15 – Mairead Cleary
16 – Emma Kirnan
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