St Mary’s College RFC J1 V Lansdowne FC J1 

17                                  14 

Metro League. 

Sunday 21st November 2021 

Overall

A beautiful sun dazzling morning, with the added sparkle of two fine robust J1 teams embellished the beauty of the day.  Lansdowne’s J1 team is often the template for that level. So to beat them was particularly satisfying. With the international on this afternoon, the match was arranged for 11.00AM. It worked out very well and gave a real boost, during a time of concern and fear about Covid. 

Volunteers who coach and manage junior teams serve a crucial, often forgotten, role in rugby club.  The J1 team is probably the hardest in that regard.  At Marys we are fortunate to have former player Paul Brennan as coach.  He is an excellent coach, a particularly busy professional man, yet gives a great deal of his time to the J1s.  Paul Conlon too, as manager, is a perfect fit for the role.  He is a most rugby knowledgeable man with excellent man management skills and like his father, a dedicated Marys.    

J1 teams often suffer due to demands of players for the first 15, or reluctance to be involved on two days on a weekend, so to see a strong team out was very positive. It is part of the senior squad and so players must buy into it, if the club is to prosper.  Today, to see the marvellous Nick McCarthy, back from injury playing for a full 80 minutes with full commitment and indeed playing a vital role in the wining try, along with David Sloan and Alex Dix, was heartening.  Also, Stephen O’Brien, who is a fine, dedicated hooker, played for a considerable time yesterday yet took his place and gave a terrific performance, as did Peter Starrett just back from injury. One unfortunate outcome was that immensely talented Loris Nikolov had to retire due to a knock on the head after 15 minutes. 

It was a lively game, frequently sprinkled with high quality play.  There were also times of errors and misjudgements that one expects at this level. A player who caught the eye once again, was young Joe Nolan, part of a high class back row including, Conor Corcoran and Nick.  He scored a fine try, picking up a ball as it emerged from a ruck and leaving all flailing as he ran 30 metres to score. Aaron O’Neill, another promising player, who had a notable game, converted; he also converted a difficult penalty.  Overall, Joe’s performance in all respects, made him the choice for MoM.    

But everyone who contributed from the start, or came on during it, played con brio and with dedication.  Some second generation distinguished Marys’ names were included, such as Sloan, Potts, Hassett and McCarthy.  Needless to say they gave of their all.

We started badly as within the first two minutes we gave away a simple try when Lansdowne overthrew a lineout ball, but retrieved it and then built the phases to score. We fought back hard and as mentioned Joe scored his try after 16 minutes. Later on 23 minutes Lansdowne scored again and we then added that penalty by Aaron O’Neill. 

The second half was a real close tough joust, with no score until the last few minutes, when Warrior Nick, broke free and set up that winning try. 

A worthy and hard earned victory.  Club members should try hard to come along and support the J1s, it is a really important and entertaining part of club rugby. Indeed it was very good to see a number of the first XV, including the captain present and Dan Lyons helping as touch judge. 

Team

15 A Dix, 14 N Donovan, 13 M Talbot, 12 T Murray, 11 D Sloan, 10 A O’Neill, 9 D McDonagh,  8 N McCarthy,7 J Nolan, 6 C Corcoran, 5 L Nikolov, 4 P Starrett, 3 P Dundon, 2 S O’Brien, 1 C McIlerney, J Coolican, K Quinn, G Hassett, G Potts, E Byrne.

D O’Brien