Our men's J1 opened their Metro Cup campaign as defending champions with what is always an exciting and difficult fixture against DUFC (Trinity Rugby) in the unique surroundings of College Park.
The atmosphere was enhanced by virtue of it being a Thursday night game under lights.
The game got off to an uncomfortable start with immediate Trinity pressure and their team looking to move the ball quickly through hands across their lively back line and attack hard and fast.
On 5 mins their efforts yielded success with a try from a clever kick and chase in behind our back line, resulting in a try for their number 15 Daniel Dillon after gathering his own ball. The try was followed by a good conversion to see Trinity establish a very early 7-0 lead.
Rock steadied well and started to carry through multiple phases into Trinity half but conceded an early penalty chance on 9 mins which Trinity missed slightly left.
On 19 minutes our continued possession pressure yielded dividends through a brilliant opportunistic try from Alex Simpson darting through to pick up a loose ball from a ruck and race in from the 22 to score Rock's first try. A great conversion by Peter Quirke saw us level on 7-7.
Prior to that our pressure had looked to have yielded a brilliant try out wide by flying winger Conor Kelly, but the ref adjudged it to have been a knock on!
Before half time Trinity and Rock exchanged successful penalties but Trinity finished with the last kick of the half being an excellent 45-yard penalty to go in at half time 13-10.
Trinity opened the second half scoring on 8 minutes with a penalty and Rock responded positively with a huge amount of pressure in the Trinity 22 which after repeated Trinity infringements saw Fionn Dougan crash over after recycling ball from a man initial tap and go 5 metre penalty that Peter Quirke's ever reliable boot converted to see Rock take the slenderest of leads with a 16-17 score line.
That lead was wiped out quickly after a Trinity attack yielded a penalty that was again successfully despatched to bring the game to 19-17.
Yet again Rock responded excellently and looked the stronger side holding consistent possession and winning the territory battle.
On 21 minutes in the second half, this paid dividends with a brilliant maul from a smart line out move that saw Jack Angulo ground for a try which Peter Quirke followed up with another successful kick to see Rock leading once again with a 19-24 score line.
The next 20 minutes became chaotic. Trinity dominated territory and possession. Rock defence was incredibly resolute throughout, even when losing a man to the bin unluckily pinged for a seat belt tackle.
Regrettably, the last play of the game produced what could only be described as a "Hail Mary" desperate kick through by Trinity which resulted in the most unfortunate and pretty unexpected bounce that favoured the on rushing Trinity player who caught it and dotted down to level the game.
The final act was yet another excellent kick by their number 10 to seal a 26-24 win.
Unfortunately the opening round heroics that occurred for us this time last year in an unforgettable 28-26 win for us v Lansdowne were entirely reversed this year where we came out on the wrong side of the same tiny margin to Trinity.
Trinity go on to face Seapoint away in their next round and we wish them the best of luck, whilst we look forward to a plate competition and continue to prep for our hugely important Metro League Premier 2 division league final v Old Belvedere on 28th March in Ollie Campbell Park.
The squad for this Trinity v BCRFC Metro Cup first round clash was:
Men’s 2nd XV (J1)
Metro Cup (1st round)
DUFC - (A) - College Park
Thursday 6th March
1. Jack Mullany
2. Stephen Judge
3. Fionn Dougan
4. Cillian Duff
5. Alex Simpson (C)
6. Josh Dixon
7. Max Brophy
8. Naoise Golden
9. Cian Moloney
10. Peter Quirke
11. Conor Kelly
12. Patrick Cowhey (VC)
13. Matthew MacCarthy
14. Michael Taaffe
15. Louie Maguire
16. Jack Angulo
17. Mark Mannion
18. Jamie McLoughlin
19. Michael English
20. Max Caskey
Reserves:
Oisin Luff
Patrick VanZuydam
All photos credits to Ronan Ryan
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