Clondalkin 2nd XV (19) vs Portlaoise (0)

Article by Derek Murtagh

Clondalkin seconds stormed to a 19-0 victory over Portlaoise seconds on Sunday. Fielding a team that appeared on paper to be much weaker than the team fielded against Portlaoise in the Lalor Cup only a few months ago, Alaric Collier’s team proved all the doubters wrong with a fine combination of running and kicking rugby along with some hard hits when needed. Missing the likes of Paul Hickey, Dave Gaule, Finbarr Bulter, Dave Behan, Ken McMahon, Bren Ward, James Kenny, and Conor Caslin the seconds proved once again that there is some serious strength in depth within the club.

However, there were ominous signs early on when it took Conor McAuley three attempts to secure the ball from the first kick off but this was just a blip in an otherwise almost faultless game from the Clondalkin pack. Well maybe with the exception of the line out which was dominated by Portlaoise all day long. With veteran utility back Stevey Cunningham playing his first second team game in years controlling things at outhalf it seemed as though any ball Clondalkin that was secured by the Clon team was pumped down into the opposition 22 for serious gains every time. In fact it was Cunningham who got the first score of the game with a flamboyant drop goal from the 10 metre line. This goal was greeted with cheers by the Clon faithful despite the fact that Cunningham passed up on a 5 on 2 overlap when Portlaoise were all at sea in defense. That said Butcher Beresford was the fifth man so maybe this was the reason that Stevey opted for the drop goal. Andy Tyndall soon followed up with a penalty to make it 6-0 just before the break.

An injury to Gary Geoghan seen the introduction of Colm Tighe just before halftime. This must have been a worry for coach Finbarr Butler given the fact that there was already two serial penalty offenders on the pitch without Tiggy getting involved. The first offender was the ever reliable Maurice Featherstone who was already well on his way to wracking up his average of 10 penalties a day while the second was Cunningham who didn’t seem to be able to figure out that players on second teams tend to be smaller than players on first teams meaning he would have to tackle lower than usual. This meant that anytime a Portlaoise player ran at Cunningham they were usually driven to the ground with a clothesline tackle.

Going into the second half Clon were playing downhill and with the wind. With a pack that was dominating up front with the likes of Dave Gilmore doing a very good impression of a specialist openside flanker and Dave Jebb just being Dave Jebb it was always going to be difficult for Clon to loose control of the game. Especially given the tactical kicking of Cunningham which seen gains of over 80 yards on some of his kicks. Clon opened their second half scoring account with an Andy Tyndall drop-goal that was probably more impressive that Cunninghams first half effort. This was greeted with a wry smile from Colm Tighe who has long been a fan of the Tyndall drop goal game. If Tyndalls drop goal was impressive, what was more impressive was that Collier was able to convince him that he was not allowed take to the field wearing the same Leinster clothes that he’s been wearing for the past two weeks solid.

Clon now were now in the ascendancy and were starting to push on for a try. A Graham Gallagher turn over allowed Collier the chance to have a 50 metre run to the line. Collier rolled back the years and showed serious pace as he sprinted to the line for a fine solo try that even involved a shimmy to keep the chasing defenders guessing. The score was now 13-0.

Clon were in with a chance of another breakaway try but this time Leigh Beresford couldn’t show the defenders a clean set of heals despite being 15 metres clear with only 60 metres to the line. Beresfords lack of fitness was very apparent when he was hauled down by the Portlaoise winger just a yard short of the line. This tackle was perhaps greeted with the biggest cheer of the day even though it cost Clon an easy 7 pointer.

Another two penalties seen Clon close the game out by a score of 19-0. Collier had this to say to clondalkinrugby.com “We were missing some big second team players today and yet we got the result we needed. I’m proud of all the boys, even Leigh who despite butchering his try still had a great game in defense. If only he played American football he would be brilliant. Credit must also go to Stevey Cunningham who I hope will be made available for our league campaign by the first team. Like come on he’s 37 today so he has to drop down some time. I also hope that we got some good reconnaissance on our rucks as from what I saw all Owly seemed to be doing was looking at them. He definitely was not hitting them. Next up is Cill Dara away. If we get the result down there it will set us up nicely for our league campaign”.

Collier also volunteered to take part in this weeks race at training, provided he gets to race against Beresford. Will Leigh be able to redeem himself?

Added by Murts September 6, 2010 (4:52PM)

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