St Marys 15pts – Trinity 18pts; November 10th 2017

Trinity made the short trip to Templeville Road to play rivals St Mary’s with 5 ex Trinity players in their ranks. The two clubs have been joined at the hip in their rivalry in the past three years. This game was no different with the teams coming into the game with the same League points.

For the third season in a row, the game was played on a Friday evening under lights and the heavens opened making for another wet experience.

St Mary’s started the game on top, and jumped out to a two-try lead in 15 minutes. Trinity was being punished for their mistakes. The home team looked good for a comfortable win.

The Students kept in touch with a Brian Mollen penalty. They then came right back into the contest when late in the first half the forwards scored a well worked driving maul try with wing Forward Richard Dunne crashing over.

The teams came out in the second half, this time the students were on top, as they began to play through the phases. They made a few line breaks and it was no surprise after several minutes on the home teams line hooker Paddy Finlay drove over for a trademark try. Mollen converted and it was ‘game on’ 15-15.

Trinity continued to attack and wing Mollen added a well -struck penalty for his team to take the lead for the first time. At this point in the game, there was only one team in it, as the Trinity forwards took it to their opponents. Trinity went close two or three times and possibly should have added to their total.

Cheered on by the home crowd, St Mary’s were always going to have their purple patch, and with ten minutes to go they gained a line out on the Trinity line, from here they caught and drove, they went six phases, before Paddy Finlay got over the ball to win a crucial turnover. St Mary’s won the ball back and attacked, this time they went 11 phases of direct rugby on the Students line, before being held up over the Trinity line.

On 74 minutes on the Stadium clock, the referee gave St Mary’s a scrum 5 metres out, and the home team went an incredible 26 phases, before that man Patrick Finlay won another heroic turnover on the Trinity line. This was the straw that broke the camels back, and Trinity gleefully cleared their lines. Replacement scrum half Rowan Osborne went close to scoring when he broke free and Trinity won out deep in the St Mary’s half, much to the cheers from their players and supporters alike!!

This was a truly heroic win for the young student team in very difficult wet conditions. For the first time this season they move out of the relegation zone into 8th place with St Marys in 9th and Buccaneers in 10th.

They now take a week off before hosting Garryowen in College Park on 25th November.

15 Michael Silvester, 14 Brian Mollen, 13 Michael Courtney, 12 Seb Fromm, 11 Billy O’Hora, 10 James Fennelly, 9 Angus Lloyd, 1 James Bollard, 2 Patrick Finlay, 3 Joe Byrne, 4 Jack Burke, 5 Alexander MacDonald, 6 Sam Pim, 7 Richard Dunne, 8 Dave St Leger.

Subs Dan Sheehan, Darragh Higgins, Niall O’Riordan, Rowan Osborne, Jack Kelly.

Trinity Senior 2nds had a busy week, they had an impressive win under the lights of College Park last Monday evening 28-21. They followed this up with a not so impressive loss to St Mary’s in Templeville on Saturday 28-15 in a game they dominated for most of the game but lost.

On Sunday Trinity U20s squad had their annual ‘Parents Day’ double header. The Freshers Squad were first up and put in a great performance in beating top of league Old Wesley 1st XV with a last minute scrum pushover try to win 20-19.

The Parents had their lunch, and then the Trinity U20s Premier squad came out in what was a 1st V 2nd place ‘JP Fanagan U20s match up’ Trinity were not good enough on the day against a well-drilled and talented Lansdowne XV eventually losing 28-13. This was a hugely disappointing loss for the home team., who will now have to regroup to play Navan in two weeks.

The Senior 3rds lost 23-10 to Guinness in Santry

The Senior 4th play Clontarf on Monday evening in Castle Avenue.

The Trinity Ladies XV lost to top of league Balbriggan 36-0.