Lord Holmpatrick’s riding colours at half-mast

Skerries 1st XV v Banbridge, 7th December, 2002 at Rifle Park

Banbridge 52
Skerries 3

There is an old French dictum which says that you don’t talk about rope in the house of a man who has been hanged. On that basis there will be little talk of rugby around Holmpatrick this week. The subject is too painful just now. The Goats went to Rifle Park on Saturday and were metaphorically shot to pieces. A seriously inept performance dragged Skerries back into the nether region of the table and helped to put local left-wing Sneddon on a par with Rosie McCann. Sneddon, author of three effervescent tries, is entitled to his temporary status as a star of the County Down.

Both sides began tentatively, each looking to the other to provide grounds for optimism. O’Connor the Skerries loose-head made a searing run up the middle of the park - an admirably positive statement - but too soon his team’s habitual imperfection at set-piece began to manifest itself. This time the scrum, so stable against Wanderers a week ago, began to crumble like a overcooked meringue. Home full-back Soper made a clean incision in a static defence and kicked the conversion himself. Hewitt, drafted up to out-half after Beggs had damaged a digit, solicited an upright to help him open Skerries account. Few suspected that he was simultaneously closing it.

A retreating scrum was at the source of Skerries second concession on 22 minutes, out-half Wilson taking the try close to the posts to facilitate Soper’s kick. It seemed at times as if left-wing Keane had a virtual monopoly of Skerries energy and any ball supplied to him was being profitably used. But Banbridge struck again before the break. Silken handling set Sneddon running like a demented whippet to begin his tour de force.

Remobilisation was now imperative for Skerries but it never materialised. Hewitt’s balletic footwork afforded him occasional progress. Mulcahy was his indomitable self when he made his entry, Butler was a brand leader in abrasiveness and Keane continued to demolish aspiring tacklers. But the team never attained any cohesion as a team. Instead, little by little, it worked its way through the entire gamut of human error and morale seeped away with inevitable detriment to defence. A hesitant tackle against a bouyant runner has roughly the same value as an iodine tablet against a nuclear accident. Before the end the visitors line had been breached four more times and the debit balance was touching the half-century.

Lord Holmpatrick’s riding colours are assuredly at half-mast this week. But it may be to the team’s advantage to gets its crisis in early this season. When the Goats play the rugby they are capable of they will win matches on a regular basis. Their task right now is to avoid being haunted either by a blemished past or an uncertain future. But that is everyone’s task, everyday. A case of sport imitating life. Or is it the other way around?

Skerries: M. Hewitt; P. Tanner, E. Caraher, G. Early (capt), D. Keane; P. Beggs, G. Hynes; P. O’Connor, P.G. Grimes, J. Garrigan, C. O’Shea, N. Walsh, P. Butler, R. Kelleher, T. Grey.
Substitutes used: M. Connolly, W. Mulcahy