|
|
Goats Elude Rangers
Bective 18 Skerries 19 This was the week in which the International Board finally confessed to its life of shame and acknowledged its complicity in the decline of a great game. "Continuity of possession does not always equate to the continuity of play" they stated weightily as if they had just cracked Fermat's Last Theorem and they went on to express regret that the laws, as presently constituted and administered, favour those who seek the former rather than the latter. The corollary of the Board's statement is that continuity of play does not always equate to continuity of possession. Is the specious ball retention mantra at last coming under scrutiny? That consummate Mulcahy the Elder - in the headlines again this week as a member of the last Irish side to beat the Springboks - harbours chronic doubts about the wisdom of playing rugby in the fullest sense and in this he is joined by a sizeable percentage of the Skerrigoat Partisanship. Over the years conservatism has almost become an article of faith at Rockalyoke, winning is all, the self-styled pragmatists say. But playing rugby and winning are by no means antithetical. And certainly not when your side is studded with artistes. Not all of this is irrelevant to the events of Friday night at Donnybrook when a monomaniac focus on continuity of possession - principally , it must be said, by the home side, spawned an avalanche of penalties. The Skerries President appointed himself tally man for the night but even he lost count as the game went on. In the circumstances fluency was severely compromised. Bective gave some worthwhile demonstration of the utility of the rolling maul and led by four penalties to one at the break at which point it was agreed that the only highlights were those attached to the huge stanchions in the four corners of the ground. Even the electronic scoreboard abdicated leaving a trail of stale information. Despite multiple substitutions the second half provided a good deal more in the way of entertainment. Two well struck penalties from Brady reduced the deficit to three points before Campion extended Bectives lead with another penalty. Butler was underlining the strength in depth of the Skerries back-row rota and the effervescent Mulcahy was becoming increasingly prominent. Right wing Lawless had made a couple of useful incursions early on and now he contemptuously moved away from his opposite number and glided in at the corner, leaving the Goats just one point adrift with a quarter hour remaining. But Campion completed his half-dozen successful kicks and as time evaporated Skerries went in pursuit of the try they now needed. They got in the last minute of additional time and it was a model of enterprise and collaboration. Firstly Mulcahy materialised on his own 22 to bolster a waning counter-attack. He kicked ahead when challenged and was up sharply to pin the fielder. Bective won the ensuing ruck and Johnson launched a towering diagonal kick to the Skerries 22 where Dunne was manning the reception desk. Dunne runs in a style reminiscent of Paul Dean, that is to say the direction of his knees don't provide the an infallible guide to the direction of his running. Bective failed to decipher him until he was over half-way. There Beggs redeemed some earlier peccadilloes by extending the movement. The inevitable Gray was next to appear before he to was mowed down. Plant had come on a few minutes earlier for his first taste of senior rugby and with one slickly given pass threw off the shroud of anonymity, sending Dempsey in triumph to the promised land. Asked subsequently how he happened to be loitering at the corner flag at he opportune moment, Dempsey said he was waiting to be substituted. Mock-modesty is the nearest you'll get to modesty from a Dempsey. Inside, two Skerries forwards would have seen there progenitors looking down at them from a Bective photographic pantheon. Mulcahy and the redoubtable Joe Mc Gowan, allied to such card-carrying desperadoes as Byrne ( " The WA " ), Cuddy, Rigney and O'Rourke, formed arguably the most cut-throat club combination of the sixties. As Skerries face into a taxing AIL campaign, it is reassuring to know that the pack can call on such uncompromising pedigree.
|
