Weekend Report

The Saturday first team/ Clondalkin legends & Co. officially known as the Clondalkin third team kicked off their league campaign with a bonus point victory over CYM Terenure on Saturday. Clondalkin were not aided by the no show of key player Ray Kelly which saw the Gordon Park men taking to the field with just 14 players.

This resulted in Clon going 10-0 down early on. The scoreline along with a brief period of domination had CYM starting to believe that they had the game in the bag until Eamon Stapleton turned back the years for a trademark turnover before popping to Paul Fitzgerald who pinned back his ears and went the length of the pitch to score a try for the oldies. (Afterwards, Paul dedicated this try to his new girlfriend who was watching from the sideline). Unfortunately, outhalf Jeff Gallagher was also able to roll back the years to the time when kicking a ball over the bar was not a part of the sport. Clondalkin now started to believe they could take the game with 14 men and after some forward domination James Kenny was driven over the line to make the scores 10-10. Ill discipline meant that Clon would go into the break 10-13 down. With the arrival of substitute Ken McMahon at half time Clondalkin were able to field 15 men in the second half. This added beef meant Clondalkin were able to take more and more possession. However, CYM managed to move 18-10 against the run of play. Clondalkin were down but not out and when the captain Gallagher sent under 20s star Ciaran Jones over in the corner the Gordon Park men were back in the game. Jones having taken over the kicking responsibilities converted from the sideline to make the game into a one point game. Clondalkin scored two penalties which meant that CYM needed a try to win the game. Desperation from the home side was punished with an average try by Mick O’Brien which will have many people in the club regretting the decision to bring this old timer out of retirement as he is bound to be going on about it for the next ten years. Final score Clondalkin 31-CYM 20.

Clondalkin seconds followed up a less than impressive victory over Mullingar with an even less impressive loss to New Ross. The scoreline of 32-0 was a fair reflection on a game that was billed as a top of the table clash between two highly fancied teams. Clondalkin were slow out of the blocks conceding five tries before half time to a well drilled team who punished each and every mistake. Some of Clondalkins poor performance can be attributed to the one hundred mile journey to New Ross but to use this as an excuse would be a discredit to New Ross who went into the break 27-0 up. Clondalkin showed spirit in the second half but chasing such a large deficit was always going to be hard and despite some promising spells of possession Clondalkin were unable to register anything on the scoreboard in the second half and finished the game 30-0 down. The only consolation for the Clondalkin team is that a number of recent first team injury victims are due back to fitness in the coming weeks and the second team will be strengthened as a consequence.

The firsts also lost to New Ross opposition by a score of 20-6. This result sees them lie 11th in the table but a good result against local opposition and current league leaders Coolmine this weekend will see them climb higher. Paul Hickey, Philip Byrne and Alan O’Brien all look to be ready to make their comebacks from injury which is timely news for the flagship team of Clondalkin rugby.

Added by Murts October 16, 2008 (10:07AM)

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