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U21s vs. Suttonians match report |
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Sunday, October 25th 2009
Suttonians 5 - Bective Rangers 43 The Bective lads got into this match right from the kick-off, attacking Suttonians through the midfield of Stephen Brennan and Terrance Keavey. The pressure yielded two early tries and things were looking good for a comfortable win. First, outhalf Michael Connolly touched down in the corner after quick ruck ball and then captain Andy Bennet finished off some fine running by prop Nick Clarke and No 8 Mulligan, with a try converted by Connolly. However, the early dominance was short lived, as Suttonians discovered their cohesion and went about getting in among the Bective pack and turning the ball over with alarming regularity. They used the wind to good effect too, kicking the play back to the Bective 22. Just before half time, their Captain and blind side flanker broke from the back of a scrum and showed good determination to beat the covering tackles to make the tryline and leave the half-time score at 5 - 12 to Bective.
The second half continued in much the same vein, with Bective enjoying the majority of possession - but failing to make any progress on the scoreboard. Then on 15 minutes the mood was transformed with a fabulous try from left wing Shane Williams. From a tight position up against the touch line, Williams lunged suddenly in-field catching the defenders completely flatfooted; he then took full advantage of the resulting confusion by ghosting all the way through the broken field to score under the posts. The pack now got on top at last, retaining the ball and setting up much better second and third phase ball for the backs. Williams was again on the scoresheet from such second phase ball, when he came steaming through at the out-side centre positon to score his second try. Next, replacement wing Dave Nutty showed some dancing feet to beat heavy cover on the left wing to touch down in the corner. The pack then kept the ball to themselves to score two tries in the last minutes. Nick Clarke finished off some excellent driving play to score in the corner and Aidan Mulligan then scored when driving powerfully from the base of a 5 meter scrum. Michael Connolly converted three of the 2nd half tries in difficult kicking conditions. A further try went a begging, when debutant Full back Mark Jones showed some remarkable awareness and determination to navigate his way through the set defence and make his way to the posts - only to fluff his one handed touch-down by knocking on over the line. His conversion from GAA has been rapid, but is not yet complete; so the art of touching down will be added to the training schedule for this week. It will be great if he can get his first touch down against his Alma Mater - Terenure, who we play in Donnybrook on Friday evening under lights....! 
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