Match Report: 1st XV v Garryowen
Saturday, 31st October saw our Men’s 1st XV face a big challenge of lining up away from home at Garryowen FC for a much needed win to maintain our pressure at the top of the table in Division 1B of the Energia All Ireland League.
On arrival it must be noted how warm the Garryowen welcome was for all as we arrived at Dooradoyle. Particularly noteworthy was our own squad member Colm Quilligan’s father Pat who ensured that the squad and management team were excellently looked after.
Pat took the time also to share some fascinating detail about the Quilligan families' deep and long-established ties with Garryowen, Munster and even Irish rugby!
Onto the field and a shaky start emerged with us needing to show great resolve in defence and in the face of a surprisingly large number of penalty calls by the official. After no shortage of incredible defence by our men across the board, on 15 minutes we pounced on an opportunity that we created down the right touchline through quick thinking, fast hands and a brilliant kick through for Harry Waters to dot down in the corner for the opening score.
Tim Corkery followed up with an exceptional conversion from far out towards the right-hand touchline.
Garryowen 0 - 7 BCRFC.
Further strong Garryowen possession and territory pressure continued and with it, our defence strengthened play by play.
On 20 minutes however, a penalty against us gave the Garryowen 10, Alexander Wood, son of the great Keith Wood, a chance to kick for points from 40 yards out, which he duly converted to make it 3 - 7.
Even with less continuous possession and attacking flow than we would have liked, our fast pace at breakdown and dangerous backline running lines were continuing to pose a threat each time we held possession.
A brilliant combination on 28 minutes gave us a scoreboard reward with Thomas Quinn, scrumhalf crossing to score. With Tim Corkery converting, the scoreline moved to 3-14.
Two further penalties, slotted by Alexander Wood on 32 minutes and 36 minutes brought the scoreline back to only a one score lead, at 9-14.
A combination of scrambling well, and quick thinking on 3 minutes beyond the 40-minute mark saw Barry Galvin brilliantly sprinting and diving for the corner, and with Tim Corkery once again converting, we got to half time with a 9-21 scoreline!
It is fair to say that after the half time turnaround, we emerged as more dominant in possession and adding ever more significant territory pressure so that over the course of almost 40 minutes we held Garryowen scoreless through at times some last ditch defence, like one brilliant move by Tim Corkery to get under the falling body of what looked to have been an inevitable try for the Garryowen ball carrier to successfully hold the ball up and win a goal line drop out instead of 5 points conceded!
During that time, we also added 3 trys through Jack Treanor; Derry Moloney; and Luke McAuliffe to bring the scoreline almost at 80 minutes to 9-38.
Just then, on the brink of full time, Garryowen finally managed to crash over beneath the posts to leave a simple conversion to bring the game to 16-38.
Not to be outdone after the restart which brought us into time added, Tommy Butler ultimately scored again for us to make the final score 16-43!
With one game to go in this second block, at home v Highfield next Saturday, 7th November being between currently the only two teams to have only lost one game, there's a huge amount riding on a massive home game, so we would ask for as large and as loud a support as possible.
On Saturday 7th November, we finish out Block 2 and Game week 6 for a 2-week break during the November internationals.
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