Skerries got back to winning ways on Saturday, as they secured a valuable bonus point victory away to north Dublin rivals Malahide in their AIL Division 2B round 15 clash at Estuary Road.

On the first day of meteorological Spring, the improved weather certainly played its part, as the two sides shared ten tries between them, although Skerries will feel they were more comfortable in their win than the 35-36 final score may suggest.

On a day of heightened emotions for all involved with Skerries RFC following the sad passing of the great Dr Bill Mulcahy, it was fitting that Bill’s grandson Ronan should play such a crucial role, creating and scoring the crucial try in a 16-point haul.

Mulcahy jnr was one of six key returnees to the Skerries squad from the previous outing against Sligo and the fullback was heavily involved in the opening score of the game, as his audacious flick sent Jack Litchfield into the corner in the 12th minute, and he nail the difficult conversion from wide on the right to make it 0-7.

The lead lasted all of three minutes, as Malahide talisman Dave O’Halloran charged down a clearance kick and then won the race to the breaking ball to touch down under the posts and leave himself the simplest of conversion attempts to level the game at 7-7.

With a quarter of the game gone, Skerries struck for their second try, with Mulcahy again providing the last pass – this time in a more conventional form – to send Tim Deering racing clear to finish in virtually the same spot as Litchfield, although this time the conversion was wide of the mark.

Although the Skerries lead lasted slightly longer this time, the hosts responded with a well-worked score of their own as Ed Weaver drew the last defender and fed Matthew Faulkner to score, and O’Halloran’s conversion put Malahide into the lead – 14-12 – for the first time.

Although both sides pressed for a third try before the end of the first period, neither could find a way through, and so the teams swapped ends with the home side enjoying that two-point lead.

Skerries enjoyed a fantastic start to the second half as they regathered their own kick-off and then saw Brían Walsh and Mikey Sherlock make big inroads down the left, before second row Cian McGuinness picked his line off a ruck a couple of phases later to register his first AIL try.

A few minutes later, a scintillating passage of play down the right hand side had Skerries celebrating what they thought was their fourth try but Darragh McEneaney was deemed to have been held up over the line.

With the visitors now fully in the ascendency, they didn’t have to wait too long for the all-important bonus point score, as an attacking 5m scrum yielded a free-kick and from Peter O’Neill’s quick tap, the number eight drew and passed to Sherlock to score one of the simpler tries of his Skerries career, and Mulcahy duly tapped over the conversion to make it 14-26 with more than half an hour still to play.

It seemed inevitable that Malahide would enjoy another purple patch of their own and, despite some resolute defending initially holding them at bay, the hosts crossed for their third try of the afternoon on 58 minutes, as veteran Lee Byrne crashed over following a sustained period of pressure, and O’Halloran’s conversion had them right back in the mix at 21-26.

On the restart, a superb poach from Sam Deering right in front of the posts took the sting out of the Malahide surge and the sensible decision to go for goal saw Mulcahy stretch the Skerries lead out to 21-29.

As the hosts pushed for another score, the mercurial Skerries fullback came up with what proved to be the match-winning score, as he made a superb read of the attack to pick off a Malahide pass between his own 1om and 22m lines and race clear and under the posts, to the roars and celebrations of the traveling support.

Adding his own conversion – his fourth of the day – Mulcahy made it 21-36 but with 17 minutes remaining, there was still plenty of time to play.

When a another ten minutes elapsed without any further change to the score, it was hard not to feel that the result was in the bag for Skerries but the reality of the situation – the home side fighting for their survival in the division against their local rivals – ensured a nervy finish.

First, scrum-half Conrad Daly caught the defence napping at a ruck to snipe through for the bonus point try in the 75th minute and then Sam Lindeman broke out from inside his own 22 to feed O’Halloran to score under the posts, with the latter converting both to make it 35-26.

Thankfully for the ever-loyal traveling Skerries contingent, that final kick was to be the last action of the game, as the visitors secured a first win of 2025 and a significant boost ahead of the final block of league fixtures, which starts with the meeting with Dungannon at Holmpatrick on March 22nd.

Skerries versus Malahide:

1. Tomas O’Donovan
2. ⁠Darragh McEneaney
3. ⁠Evann Shelley
4. Sam Deering
5. Cian McGuinness
6. Alex Cleary
7. Paddy Finn
8. Peter O’Neill
9. Eoghan Carron
10. Paul O’Loghlen (capt)
11. Davey Goodman
12. Mikey Sherlock
13. Tim Deering
14. Jack Litchfield
15. Ronan Mulcahy
16. Trevor Scuffil
17. ⁠Rossa Gilbride
18. Ben McKiernan
19. ⁠John Healy
20. Brían Walsh