Trinity 20pts – St Mary’s College 14pts; October 9th 2015

Trinity won their second game in two weeks with a hard earned win over St Mary’s College in the first Floodlight game played in College Park.

The teams ran out under the new lights and in front of as big a crowd College Park has seen in recent times. St Mary’s started strongest and were first on the scoreboard when their wing, Irish sevens International,  Terry Kennedy broke free out wide.  He chipped through, got the bounce and dived over for a fine individual try. The Templeville road club followed this up with a well struck penalty from their out half Sean Kearns.

8-0 ahead, the visitors looked well in control. But Trinity came back to score a well taken try after wing Tim Maupin had made the original line break in midfield, and out half Jack McDermott saw a gap in the St Mary’s defence to glide through to score under the posts.

McDermott backed this up with a conversion and two penalties before the half time whistle as the Students began to dominate proceedings with their quick tempo style of play.

In the second half the teams continued to attack each other, but the defences were generally on top forcing errors throughout.

Trinity got the score they needed when,  from a sweeping back line move down the right touch line, Conor Kearns put wing Tim Maupin away with a sensational off load. Maupin beat four cover defenders as he danced against the grain. He, in turn,  fed supporting scrum half Angus Lloyd who scored under the posts, with McDermott converting the extra points.

20-11 up Trinity looked poised to run away from their opponents but St Mary’s, to their credit, hung in and eventually closed the score with a Kearns penalty.

The last few minutes were a nail-biter for the large watching crowd but the Trinity defence held tight and closed the game out to take the spoils.

This was a tough game for the students, who were probably just about the best team on the night as they tried to play with intent, but they could easily have lost.

Next Saturday they make the short trip to Donnybrook where they play high flying and league leaders Old Wesley. This will be a tough challenge to the ever improving College outfit.

Trinity team; 15 Conor Kearns, 14 Tim Maupin, 13 Kingsley McGowan (Jack Fitzpatrick 25 Brian Slater 60), 12 Paddy Lavelle, 11 Max McFarland, 10 Jack McDermott, 9 Angus Lloyd, 1 Eric O’Sullivan (Andy Keating 55), 2 Jack Boland, 3 Tom Collis, 4 Jack Burke, Raef Tyrell, 6 Conor Gleeson (Nick McCarthy 60), 7 Brian Du Toit, 8 Tom Ryan;