Greystones side endure long trip before shining in Skerries
at Skerries SKERRIES GREYSTONES 19 55
THE powers that be within the IRFU like to schedule local derby fixtures for Friday night’s rather than the traditional Saturday lunchtime kick off and quite often the floodlit experience succeeds is drawing decent crowds and generating good atmospheres.
But when they sat down to schedule this seasons All Ireland League fixtures quite how they figured that Greystones in Co. Wicklow and Skerries in North county Dublin, separated by a mere 75km, constituted a local derby never mind scheduling the game for the Friday of a bank holiday weekend. As it turned out the notorious M50 was at its worst last Friday with some of the players and supporters facing journey times in excess of three hours to reach the north Dublin town, not the best preparation for what looked to be a tricky encounter for the Greystones side seeking to maintain their unbeaten start to the season.
As it turned out any frustration with the Dublin traffic was channelled into positive energy on the pitch as Greystones utterly dominated this match played on a bitterly cold evening running in a total of seven tries to take the bonus point back home following a 55 points to 19 win.
The match was played with a strong gale blowing straight down the pitch and the way the two sides chose to use the wind told much of the story of the game. Skerries had the advantage in the first half and their young outhalf Billy Mulcahy, grandson of the great Bill Mulcahy, former Irish International and twice a lions tourist in 1958 and 1962, chose to kick for goal whenever the opportunity present- ed and notched up four successful conversions in the first half. When Greystones had the advantage they kept ball in hand and took the game to the opposition despite having prolific goal kicker Andrew Kealy in the side and ran in five second half tries.
Greystones showed their intent from the start and the game was barely two minutes old when their forward dominance brought a five meter scrum when Ian Cullinane was held up following a big forward drive.
With the Skerries pack being driven backwards over their line scrum half Andy Roberts picked the ball from the scrum to dive unopposed under the posts. Paudie Geoghegan added a second after 20 minutes when he stepped into the line taking a deft pass from outhalf Killian Marmion to weave his way through the home defence to cross under the posts. Andrew Kealy added the conversions and a penalty for good measure into the wind to give Greystones a 17–12 half-time lead.
The second half started in similar manner to the first. Passing up the opportunity for an easy three points, Kealy playing a captains role kicked to the corner for an attacking lineout. With the ball thrown to the front Greystones attacked the line and after just two phases of play Ian Cullinane crashed over for his side’s third try.
The fourth followed in similar fashion with the Greystones pack dominant and attacking in waves and Michael Douglas finishing the move. Indeed such was the dominance of the Greystones pack they were able to lay the platform for the backs to show what they can do.
First, winger Andrew Lynch, making his debut for the Greystones senior team, ran between two defenders to ground a ball kicked through by Marmion then Con Callen picked off an intercept from his 10-meter line to race clear for a score and Jamie Dempsey spliced the defence to add the seventh try. Andrew Kealy added a 50-meter penalty for good measure and four conversions while Killian Marmion converted two more.
Speaking after the match, head coach Kevin Lewis was pleased with the result and performance but was unhappy with the concession of 10 penalties in the first half alone identifying that they are just not quick enough to support the player at the breakdown and will have to work on this aspect to cut out the penalties and concession of soft points.
Lewis went on to highlight the strength in depth in the squad where there is real competition for places on the starting 15 and was particularly pleased with the return to action off the bench of last season’s captain Dan Mannion making his first AIL appearance in over a year following knee surgery along with Alan Dempsey who suffered a similar ACL injury at the start of last season.
At this early stage the race for promotion from Division 2B is shaping into two-horse battle with both Barnhall and Greystones unbeaten in their first four matches. The two sides meet in Dr Hickey Park in the pre-Christmas festive encounter on December 15, but there is a lot of rugby to be played before that starting this Saturday with the visit of Sligo.
Greystones: Andrew Kealy (Capt), Andrew Lynch, Con Callan, Jamie Dempsey, Paudie Geoghegan, Killian Marmion, Andrew Roberts, Robin O’Sullivan, Ian Cullinane, Eoin Marmion, Oisin Lennon, Chris Simmonds, Conor Pearce, Joel Penders, Viktor Zelenka. Replacements: Conor Byrne, Barry Treanor, Dan Mannion, Alan Dempsey, Michael Douglas.