It took us about an hour-and-a-half to get to Carlow Rugby Club grounds but we made it just in time for a quick warm-up and then our opponents, Presentation College Carlow kicked off our match. The first ten minutes was all about the set pieces, with four scrums and two line-outs taking place. The same kind of set-piece dominance displayed by the St Mac Dara's pack in our last game could be seen again today. In fact we never lost a scrum on our put-in, nor did we fail to reclaim the ball on any time it was our throw-in to the line-out. We even poached a few of the opposition's set pieces!
Nervousness and a slightly greasy pitch underfoot accounted for all of the early handling errors and the amount of set-pieces. Although we were steady in our scrummaging an early break from Carlow allowed them the first score of the game on the 15 minute mark. They failed to convert but our restart was very quickly claimed by Carlow leading them to put more pressure on us. We conceded a penalty for not releasing and managed to sustain the mounting pressure from the Carlow lads from three quick line-outs, on opposite ends of the pitch, in the space of two minutes. This remained the pattern of play until nearly the end of the half, with Pres Carlow attempting to put pressure on us through their set-pieces and managing to steal ball from us through their rucking. Some great pressure was put on them by Luke Hill (Lock) and the rest of the forwards. Our defence was solid though and eventually Carlow were penalised for going off their feet in a ruck. Jake Miller (scrumhalf) took a quick tap and unleashed our backs. Conor Ryan (Outside Centre) eventually put us on the scoreboard two minutes before half-time with a great try, which Jake Carroll (Inside Centre) handily converted. 5-7 to us. Half-time.
The teamtalk at half-time was fairly animated, to say the least, but the St Mac Dara's team knew they had the strength and ability to win the game. Rucking was identified as one of our weaknesses and an area that the players resolved to improve. The second half saw Mark Reneghan (Lock) and Luke Alford (8 & captain) conduct a masterclass in possessive rucking and offensive counter-rucking. The Carlow No. 8 had stolen so much ball from us in the first half but in the second half he didn't get to touch one! This new-found aggression lead to a great try from William Kelly (Hooker) only three-and-a-half minutes into the second half. William had a great defensive game in the first half and was constantly and consistently the first player up from Mac Dara's to put pressure on Carlow and to make his tackles. He was also a great vocal presence on the pitch and really helped to drive the team. Another perfect conversion from Jake and the game was back on. At almost fifteen minutes into the second half Jake Miller showed great initative and used a choke tackle to turn-over possession. Our pressure was constant and paid off when Andrew Hayden (Flanker) scored a great try at the twenty-minute mark. Another perfect conversion from Jake and we're 5-21 ahead!
You're always most vulnerable just after you've scored and we leaked one four minutes later.* Despite great pressure from us we conceded another try* five minutes later and with their score we were suddenly ahead by just four points. Three minutes later William Kelly, in a man of the match performance, scored another try giving us the perfect spread heading into the last two minutes, especially after Jake scored his fourth conversion for a perfect 100% record. The whistle went and we had recorded our first win of the season. The first of many. A special mention to the first years who made their debuts today.
The bus trip back didn't seem to take as long as the trip down!
Tries. St Mac Dara's 4 (4), Presentation College Carlow 3 (1)
Possession. St Mac Dara's 35 minutes. 55%. Carlow 25m. 45%.
Territory. St Mac Dara's 60%. Carlow 40%.
Line-Outs. St Mac Dara's 2 (2). Carlow 7 (5).
Scrums. St Mac Dara's 8 (8). Carlow 9 (7).
James Murphy, Mark Ryland, Conor Ryan, Jake Carroll, Ben Daly, Sean Redmond, Jake Miller, Luke Alford (c), Andrew Hayden, Charlie , Luke Hill, Mark Reneghan, Billy Hamilton, William Kelly, Aaron MacDonagh.
*It's always extremely important to respect the referee's decision, even when we think he's wrong. And blind. And from Carlow.
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