Skerries Under 13's vs St. Mary's RFC - February 7th, 2010

Skerries 36
St. Mary's RFC 0

A bitter wind came off the sea at Bremore where Skerries U-13s took on St Mary’s RFC on a pitched liberally decorated with goose droppings. As on many previous outings this season, the opposition were bigger, a lot bigger, than the Skerries team. But like Blackrock on the previous outing, St Mary’s are a club side, not the school side. And there is a difference.

For the first ten minutes, St Mary’s pressed and Skerries defended but then Evan McGloughlin pounced on a ball inside his own 22 and fed the backs and Lorcan Jones ran through the defence and a long way to score Skerries’ first try. Ciaran Frawley converted to make it 7-0.

From the kick-off George Harrington took and drove and linked up with the back line and Steven Smith very nearly scored again. The balance of the game shifted and despite the fact that the handling on occasion was reminiscent of the pitch decoration, Skerries from then on took the game to Mary’s, The scrum stayed secure and the forwards won a lot of rucks despite the size deficit, with Conn Marrey working tirelessly. After sustained pressure, Hooker Darragh Martin took one against the head in the scrum for George Harrington nearly to get over. Then Fiachra Robinson bravely won a loose ball, recycled it and Sam Toft found flanker Niall McCann, who scored.

As half time neared, Lorcan Jones had another long incisive run, then fed to Darragh Martin, who seemed sure to score but ran into traffic. Nonetheless he was able to link up with Steven Smith, and Evan McGloughlin barged over for the third try.

Early in the second half, Lorcan Jones got the ball near half way, and beat all tacklers to touch down under the posts. Barry McDonald came on in the centre and soon won loose ball on the ground on the Mary’s 22. He passed to Ben McBrien who carried the ball far enough for Barry to get back on his feet, take a return pass and get over in the corner. 24-0.

But Skerries’ play became a bit ragged as players started to get “white line fever” – keeping the ball too long, looking to score. The backs started to run diagonally with the ball, allowing the defence to close them down. St. Mary’s very big no . 8 caused a lot of trouble by picking and driving and, had Mary’s used the tactic more, they just might have gotten back into the game. But the game was sealed when George Harrington showed his own no.8 strength and picked from the scrum to drive over. Ciaran Frawley converted for a final score of 36-0, a fine result.

In the second match, Skerries lost some momentum against the bigger boys of St Mary’s and went down 10-15, with a tries by Niall McCann and Steven Smith. Conor Balfe continued his steady improvement with some fine runs .