AIL (Div 2B)
Saturday 9th March 2019
Greystones 40 – 27 Skerries
What a difference a week makes? Last week against Rainey Skerries had 22 points on the board in as many minutes. This week against an impressive Greystones side they were 33 points to five in arrears with just 42 minutes on the clock. So how do you lose a match while scoring five tries, simple, you let in six.
Earlier in the year Skerries clearly defined weakness was to let the opposition build up a hatful of points in the early stages of a game and then they had to mount a comeback of herculean proportions in an effort to secure some value from the contest. It was thought that especially after last week’s display that this defect in playing strategy had been fixed. It was a false dawn and the side slipped back into old ways in what was always going to be a very tough away fixture.
Greystones dominated the early exchanges and for the first 12 minutes they had squatter’s rights inside the Skerries 22. With their first serious attack of the match Skerries scored a memorable try when right winger Dave Goodman finished off a fine back movement in some style. The difficult conversion from out wide was missed by Paul O ‘Loghlen.
The dream start was short lived and the focus and the concentration of the visitors seemed to vanish for the next 40 minutes. Greystones scored two tries in quick succession and then scored that all important try right on the stroke of half time.
It did not look too bad a position as Skerries were well in the game but within a minute of the restart Greystones scored a converted try. From the restart Greystones ran the ball back with some slick passing across the backline and were only denied a try when Kevin Mc Grath was adjudged to have deliberately knocked on the final scoring pass. Penalty try awarded, Mc Grath in the bin and 33 points to 5 adrift.
What next? Panic stations? No, Skerries don’t do panic, they do recovery instead, far more interesting and a definite test for those of us who might just cast a second glance at a defibulator.
Paul O ‘Loghlen who had a fine game at out half brought his backs into the game with some adventurous passes. The backline grew in confidence and Ross Gordon and Mark Oliver sprung from the bench breathed new life into the team.
Gordon scored first in the corner and then Kevin McGrath scored while Paul O’ Loghlen added the conversion for good measure. Greystones regained some composure and scored a try against the run of play to leave the score at 40 points to 17 with about 70 minutes gone. Mark Oliver who looked capable of scoring every time he got the ball scored a great try after the ball had been worked cleverly across the backline and then Kevin McGrath got his second try of the match which the fly half converted. The score was now 40 points to 27 with about five minutes left on the clock. The home side were out on their feet but Skerries had gone to the well too many times and could not keep the momentum going to secure what would have been a valuable extra bonus point .
All told it was a wonderful performance laced with courage and honesty that nearly brought off the surprise result of the season.
The problem lies with the concentration and the application in the first 40 minutes of a match. Solve that issue and there is every reason to believe that the Goats could win all three remaining fixtures.
Skerries team …. K. McGrath, C.Lennox, S. Dempsey, L. Jones, P.O’ Loghlen, D. Goodman,C. Marrey, K.Leonard, T.Scuffil, R.Halligan, T.Mulvaney , M.Turvey, R. McAuley,E.Sherlock.
Conn Marrey, J. Sherwin, R. Gordon, M. Oliver