League enters a critical phase
IT has been a tale of two halves for Dundalk RFC so far this season.
The first seven games saw Adam Doyle’s side lose only once, however they have lost the last three games on the bounce and the break has come at the right time for the Mill Road outfit.
Reflecting on the year to date, Dundalk forwards/scrum coach Shane O’Reilly was happy with how it has gone.
Indeed, considering the change the club has undergone and the shift in styles, O’Reilly says that the club are ahead of where they expected to be.
‘It’s a three-year project from our perspective,’ he said.
‘We weren’t going into it to win leagues in the first year. To survive in the first year was always going to be the objective, so I think we are possibly a little ahead of expectations on that.
‘But you are possibly a few injuries to key players away from getting dragged into a dogfight.
‘As regards how we are playing, we are moving in the right direction. Some things are moving faster than others.’
Dundalk have suffered a few injuries themselves and the Christmas break may have come at the exact right time for them.
‘In our last home game our two second rows went off with concussion within ten minutes of each other and they wouldn’t be able to play until next week at the earliest.
‘Our centre, Willie Schutz, has been carrying an injury for the last few weeks and he didn’t play last time out, so it’s good to have a few weeks to get him fit again.’
New Zealander Schutz joined the club at the start of the season and has been a key player for Dundalk.
‘He has fitted in well, he has a great attitude to training and you can see some of the younger guys, especially in the backs, really respond to him and his skillset. He sees things they don’t and they really look up to that.’
It’s going to be a tough 2020 for Dundalk. They will begin the year in fourth, six points off second from bottom and four points off second.
‘We always felt that the first half of the season was our best chance to get wins under our belt. Teams would have always been used to Dundalk playing a certain style of rugby the last few seasons and we changed that quite dramatically, so the teams we played first wouldn’t have been used to that and we caught some on the hop.
‘They have all seen us play now, so forearmed is forewarned and there’s no team that cannot be beaten in this league with the possible exception of Ashbourne.
‘We identify what we think we can exploit and play that way and just hope our analysis is better than theirs.’
The draw for the Provincial Towns Cup took place last weekend and Dundalk were given a bye into the second round, and that was welcomed by O’Reilly as it will give them more time on the training ground.
Dundalk return to action on January 11th when they host Gorey in an important Leinster League match.