Men in Black Get the monkey off their Back

Towns Cup first round report

Clondalkin’s first team finally got their Towns Cup monkey off their back with an impressive 13-9 victory over Navan last Sunday. This is Clons fourth year in the tournament and it may surprise some people but Clon have never progressed beyond the first round. Clon who played their first match in their all black strip following a rare mishap in the launderette.

This win came despite the fact Clon were missing their two primary lineout jumpers and first choice outhalf. Missing the twin towers of Sean Brennan and Bob the Builder was a major disruption in itself for the Clondalkin outfit with coach Paul ‘Hitch’ Haycock being left with no option but to have Number 8 Paul McDemott and blindside flanker, Simon King make themselves available to fly, something neither of them have done on a regular basis since their underage days. The disruption to the pack was bad enough but Alan Hickeys ongoing hand injury kept him out of the game and this caused a major re-shuffle of the backline. Regular fullback Chris Jebb was forced to play 10, first centre Steve Cunningham moved to 15 and recent signing Ronan Murphy had to play 12 in what was his debut game with the firsts.

Its often said that misfortune can be a teams greatest fortune and this was true inside the first 10 minutes of the game when Clon were rewarded their first lineout. Kingo rose well to claim the ball, a swift pass from Mark Molloy sent Murphy rampaging through the centres sucking in three Navan defenders. Good rucking from Mike Ryder and Paul McDermott allowed for a quick recycle of the ball. Molloy fed Jebb who noticed that Navan were lacking numbers out wide and put in a superb cross field kick that landed straight into the hands off the silver haired Cunningham who strolled over for the first try of the game after a move in which all players affected by the late changes handled the ball. Jebb converted to make it 7-0. Both teams traded penalties to bring the score to 10-3 after about twenty minutes.

Clon were getting comfortable in the game and were beginning to apply pressure on the Navan line coming close to going over with a number of 5 metre scrums but lacked the bit of composure to register the score. This period of pressure eventually ended as did the Niall Nolans game with him retiring from the field with a hamstring strain. This allowed for the introduction of the clubs all time top try scorer Paul Fitzgerald who was playing his first game of the season with the firsts due to the clubs current injury woes. Fitzgerald is a fans favourite and his introduction was greeted with a rapturous applause. This was nothing in comparison to the applause that he got when he got his first touch of the ball and appeared to turn the back the clocks to 2001 with a vintage break from inside his own 10 metre line stepping past three players on his way. However, it appears that time has caught up on the older Fitzgerald brother as did the Navan cover reaching him just metres short of the line. Navan were driving him into touch but to his credit he managed to stay in play. This run put Clon into a nice position and after a few carries from the Clon pack it was time for Cunningham to attempt a drop goal. However, his drop goal attempt was not of the vintage variety, more so the Andy Tyndall variety, and was so far wide that the ball eventually landed in touch. Navan managed a penalty before the break to make the score 10-6. The subsequent restart saw of the greatest ever pieces of skill with Simon King catching the ball one handed from the restart. The ball never came out of the resulting ruck and the ref blew for half time.

Clons halftime teamtalk ended with Kenny O’Brien pulling out his speech about the game he played where everyone was so tired that they couldn’t even stand in the showers afterwards. He told the lads that if they really wanted Towns Cup victory that they needed to be prepared to put their bodies on the line and that it started with the next forty minutes.

The players agreed that it was going to start with the next forty minutes and from that moment O’Brien was sure his charges would emerge victorious. Navan were intent of making a point that they had not come just to make up the numbers, especially given the fact that they fielded all of their AIL fringe players thereby putting out the strongest team they could field. In fact it was them that had the brighter start in the second half and they launched a number of up and unders down the throat of Cunningham who was playing his first game at fullback for almost a season. The Gordon Park faithful were worried that maybe Cunningham had lost his magic under the high ball before the game but most of their worries were put to bed during the second half where he showed that he can still field every ball that’s kicked to him. However, a number of people on the sideline were in no uncertain doubt that he has lost it. The it that we refer to is the large number of OOO’s that he adds to the end of his name before he rises into the air to come down with the ball. Out has gone the “STEVEOOOOO’S BALL’ roar and it has now been replaced with the more conservative ‘Steves Ball’. This is a major worry for the Clon faithful who relish the Cunningham roar so heres hoping that Hitch has a drill at training this week for Cunningham to practice his roar.

Navan registered a penalty to bring the score to 10-9. The game was too close to call and Navan were still exerting pressure on the Clondalkin line. However, awesome defence from the centre pair of Ronan Murphy and man of the match Andy Dixon ensured Clon stayed in the lead. Chris Jebb was concerned about the score so decided that he’d try a drop at goal from inside his own half. The ball struck the cross bar before landing back into play. Good follow up play from Gary Donnelly ensured that Clon got the ball back. Jebb slotted in the pocket and this time he slotted the ball between the posts. For all his excellence Jebb did almost throw away the game by having a lazy kick charged down with only a matter of minutes to go. The ball landed into the Navan wingers hands and it appeared Clon’s towns cups dreams were dead for another year. However, Jebb was not going to let this happen and he raced after the winger to catch him just short of the line. Andy Dixon got back in support and forced a turnover that his centre partner from his Blackrock college SCT days, Brian O’Driscoll, would have been proud of.

Player watch this week focussed on prop Sean Dunne. Dunne who is possibly the lightest prop to ever play Towns Cup rugby the 129 years of the competition weighing in at a little bit under 12 stone, dominated his opponent at every scrum and is well on his way to earning himself a new nickname ‘The Beast Killer’. Last years second team first centre showed that his scrimmaging prowess has few rivals.

Moment of the match was the little dance the two Cux brothers produced when the referee blew the whistle. The dance looked even more ridiculous than Cux wearing a scrumcap something he was keen to point out would not be a permanent fixture. Once his head heals the cap is gone but we can all hope that their will be more days where he can perform his Towns Cup victory dance.

Coach Paul ‘Hitch’ Haycock had the following to say “This was the first ever Towns Cup game that I have been involved with as a coach or a player. I felt the magic and regard with which this competition is held around Leinster and beyond, and can be sure that this rivals any competition around the world when it comes to what people will do to win. I seen both teams put in valiant displays today and I’m sure I seen one or two of our boys unable to stand in the showers afterwards so I know its been a good day. I wont be foolish and talk our chances of winning the cup up too much but I will say I regret not stopping into Paddy Powers on Friday”. Actually Hitch said none of the above. He actually said “It doesn’t matter what I say. You’ll just make something up in anyway”.

As an aside many of the Clondalkin players individually commented on the attitude of the Navan team and supporters before, during and after the game and look forward to facing Navan again in the not too distance future. They were a real credit to their club.

Added by Murts February 2, 2010 (12:29PM)

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