ST MARY’S COLLEGE 12 BUCCANEERS 28
Buccaneers U-20s travelled to Templeville Road, Dublin, for Round 1 of the JP Fanagan Leinster League Premier 2 Division against a much-fancied St. Mary’s College team on Sunday. The midlanders made three changes for this fixture with Charlie O’Carroll and Callum Kelly slotting into the backline and James Dillon starting at lock.
With a good home crowd in attendance, Buccs started the livelier with a lot of great solid carries and good ball retention to go through the phases eating past the gain line with each carry. This gave the visiting team plenty of confidence and a realisation that they were very much in this game from the get-go. After a number of solid phases into the St. Mary’s half, Buccs were awarded a penalty after an Abu Saka turnover, well inside the 10m line, but unfortunately, Dylan Duffy’s radar was slightly off.
But Buccs came hunting immediately from the kick-off and were again awarded a penalty, this time closer to the posts and Duffy made no mistake, putting the Pirates in a deserving 3-0 lead after 15 minutes. The midlanders continued to pile the pressure on with some great handling, but also with a display of steadfast defending as St. Mary’s came more into the game. But Buccs dominance in this opening 25 minutes paid dividends when a number of quick rucks resulted in big centre Tom Sheehan crashing over from close range for their first try. Duffy made no mistake with the conversion, putting Buccs into a 10-0 lead after 25 minutes.
For the remainder of the first half, Buccs over-confidence probably allowed St. Mary’s to come back into the contest. While this self-belief against a Dublin U-20s team was admirable, some simpler forms of game management might have been the order of the remainder of the half. This gave the home side the opportunity to build phase after phase in attacking positions. However, Buccs defence were resilient and more than up for the task, not allowing St. Mary’s attack to breach the cover on any occasion, except for a solitary penalty kick.
In the last play of the half, another College attack was turned over by the Athlonians defence well inside their own half and, instead of kicking the ball dead to end the half, the backs sniffed the opportunity to run the ball from deep. After some great work and simple ball through the hands down the left wing from O’Carroll, Sheehan and Thomas Cotton, Kelly was eventually taken down close to the St. Mary’s line with a high tackle. From the resulting penalty, Buccs made the metropolitans pay with a strong carry from Paddy Egan who tipped the ball down over the line in the corner. Duffy missed the difficult conversion, but Buccaneers were worthy of their 15-3 lead.
The second half saw St. Mary’s grow more into the game but, with the Buccs defence steadfastly thwarting every attacking move, the Blues were happy to kick for the posts on every occasion awarded to them. At the three-quarters stage, three penalties from St. Mary’s had narrowed their arrears to 12-15. Nevertheless, Buccs defence looked comfortable throughout with everyone to a man sticking to their task.
On 65 minutess, Buccs were again gaining more territory and were awarded a penalty in front of the posts which Duffy converted to relieve the pressure slightly. With St. Mary’s now down to 14 men following a yellow card to their scrumhalf for a high tackle, Buccs were awarded another kickable penalty to stretch the lead out to 9 points which Duffy duly did.
Buccs were now in the supremacy and in the 75th minute continuing pressure inside the home 22, with many hard intelligent carries and recycling, brought them within 5 metres. St. Mary’s just were not able to hold out and Egan eventually touched down from a close-range pick-and-go for his second try. With the try being converted by Duffy, this left the scores going into the last play at 28-12 where the game ended.
A well-deserved victory on the road from Buccs squad who are now growing in confidence after a very slow start to their season. There now is a strong belief building within the squad and with hard work there’s definitely more to come from them. Man-of-the-match was awarded to Loughrea-man Niel Botes who put in a sterling defensive display for the 70 minutes he was on the field. But as was acknowledged by the team management afterwards, there were many realistic candidates for the MOTM accolade on the day.
In the forwards exchanges captain Conor Sheehan lead by example for the entire 80 minutes, Niall Tallon and Egan carried and defended hard throughout, and our front row of Aindriu Oates, Sean Rohan and Saka owned the scrum. Flyhalf O’Carroll controlled the game exceptionally well with Donncha Connolly being everywhere and a typically busy scrumhalf. Centres Sheehan and Cotton worked tirelessly in defence and attack for the full 80 and our back three of Duffy, Danny Reid and Kelly along with substitute Lorcan McCormack worked in tandem to thwart the St. Mary’s attack all day.
ST. MARY’S COLLEGE:- J.Halpin; S.Murray, R.Morgan, S.Ryan, C.Gibney; E.Kenny, C.de Lacy; J.Molloy, C.Enright, C.Scott; P.Power, L.Policky; L.Flaherty, L.Jennings and J.Durkan. Replacements:- T.Keoghan, R.Smyth, E.Pender, C.J.Ohagwa, Z.Doyle-O’Brien, M.Reilly and D.Daniel.
BUCCANEERS:- D.Duffy; D.Reid, T.Cotton, T.Sheehan, C.Kelly; C.O’Carroll, D.Connolly; A.Saka, S.Rohan, A.Oates; J.Dillon, C.Sheehan (captain); N.Botes, P.Egan and N.Tallon. Replacements:- S.Doyle, O.Donoghue, S.Browne, D.Martin, L.Cassidy, B.Foxe and L.McCormack.
