Match Report: 1st XV v UCC
After a superb start at home v MU Barnhall, our Men’s AIL squad had an away fixture to contend with on Saturday at The Mardyke Arena in Cork v UCC Rugby.
Always a tough place to go and with a fast and skilful attacking style and collective of players, we’re always going to lose an attacking threat at all times and that certainly transpired in this tense and tight battle.
18 minutes in after two converted try’s coming from Thomas Quinn on 9 minutes and then Jack Deegan on the 18th minute, with both conversion slotted assuredly by Tim Corkery, a
0-14 scoreline was just reward for our possession and control.
However, not to be outdone or contained, during a difficult defensive period down to 13 men after two sin bins within 6 minutes of each other, UCC finally capitalised and broke through to score and to convert just on half time.
7-14 at half time was a much closer scoreline than the way the game had gone, but a lead had been secured!
Things got worrying when UCC still capitalised on the numbers deficit even as we returned to 14 men initially and a brilliant break away solo effort counterattack from his own 22 by the UCC full back saw UCC score again and convert to level the game at 14-14.
Once we got back to 15 men, that same dominance from the first half returned and we started to build possession and territory pressure, but it took until the 60th minute before we could once again score to pull away from that drawn position. A well worked score after a few near misses came when James Burke powered over and once again Tim Corkery converted.
Shortly afterwards, Harry Waters repeated the trick and Tim once again obliged.
Keeping UCC at bay proved impossible however and on 71 minutes they once again scored and converted to bring the game back to only a 7 point lead for Rock at 21-28.
Tim's trusty boot was called into action one more time with 4 minutes left on the clock to widen the gap to 21-31 and that proved just aswell as a dying action 3 minutes past the 80 minute mark saw UCC score again but fail to convert.
From the restart, Blackrock won a penalty and opted to finish out the game by kicking to touch with a hard earned try bonus point and win in the bag.
26 - 31 was the final score to secure 5 points in the leaderboard to now being joint top of the table with 9 points from 2 games.
Thomas Quinn and James Burke have developed a habit with a try per game each and Tim has only missed one solitary kick in those two games also.
We're on the road again next Saturday to a tough opponent in Naas, so all support would be greatly appreciated!
Match Report by:
Aidan Finn, 1st XV Team Manager
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