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Weekend 2nd February 2008 |
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Weekend 2nd & 3rd February 2008 J4 League Terenure 29, Bective 0
By Donal Milmo-Penny Saturday morning brought an early start against Terenure. The pitch was somewhat better prepared for ice skating than rugby but being the hardy souls that we are, we decided to proceed. Our team was somewhat more cobbled-together than usual given the number of lads who were away, injured or unavailable however the 18 lads that showed came together as a slightly odd looking but decent bunch! Visual contrasts aside the rugby started quite well for Bective. This was one of only two occasions I can recall at B’s level when we have out-muscled a Terenure pack. Our dominance was notable and our ability to drive up the middle (a standard Terenure ploy) was fantastic. This surly was a big strong Bective pack. In contrast our diminutive backs showed a light touch on several occasions early on with our selection of scrum half’s moving the ball beautify. Terenure had a number of very decent players in their own set up most notably a powerful and canny 8 who was not planning on making our day easy. Their 13 was also a clever player and managed to unlock our defense on several occasions and provide them with some good go forward. There is not much point in going into the game blow by blow here. In general both teams preformed well, Bective especially so at the start of the game and at the end of the first half. Some of our lads really had stand out performances most notably Fergal Foley and Eoin (man of the match) whose work rates and ball carrying were phenomenal. The major difference was that Terenure scored points where we did not which left them with a rather flattering looking score. We had difficulties with certain areas of our game through not having a group who had formed as a team. At the end of a day it’s a team endeavor and a good team of 15 middling players will generally beat 15 fine players who have not formed into a unit. We also had a number of players who were playing out of position (these lads deserve the most thanks for digging us out and making the effort to show) but this is never the easiest. In essence the team beat the mish-mash! If one criticism can be leveled on the Bective players, it’s that some lads let their heads drop or lost interest in the game in the second half. We all know its quite annoying to see some lanky purple, white and black knob jockey trotting into the corner for a try but hey, it was not our day; Terenure were the better team so we’ll give it to them…. This time…. |
