Dolphin 3pts – Trinity 44pts; November 7th 2015

Trinity travelled to Cork on Saturday leaving Dublin in wet conditions. When they arrived in Musgrave Park, Cork home of Dolphin RFC the sun was out and the conditions were positively balmy!

The home team had three of their players named for Munster that evening so was not at full strength. Trinity started the game in fine form moving the ball comfortably through the phases, they stretched the home defence and gained an early penalty that Trinity out half Jack McDermott converted. The students continued to pressure, from a quick penalty scrum half Angus Lloyd broke free before feeding centre Paddy Lavelle who passed to flanker Brian Du Toit to score by the posts.

Trinity followed this up with another score, when off a loose ball from a line out, out half Jack McDermott glided through a yawning gap in the home defence before passing to centre Seb Fromm. 17-0 in fifteen minutes was a great start for the visitors. Dolphin then lifted their game and dominated possession and position on the field, it was vital they got a score or two to close the gap, but they only managed a penalty against an aggressive student defence.

In the second half Trinity got back into the game and effectively killed off any chance of a Dolphin win, when Angus Lloyd broke up the right hand sideline, the ball was quickly moved the full width of the field with Paddy Lavelle giving a long cut out pass to hooker Jack Boland who straightened the attack giving the ball to Seb Fromm who stepped inside the cover defence to score by the posts for a superb team try. 24-3 up Trinity was not to be stopped as they went for the vital bonus point try for four tries. After multiple phases, stand in out half Conor Kearns broke up the middle, the ball was moved quickly left to right with Brian Du Toit linking with replacement centre Kingsley McGowan displaying a fine ‘set of hands’ to give his wing Tim Maupin an easy run into the corner.

Trinity scored two more tries when after seven phases the ball was moved wide left and then back wide right before a trailing Max McFarland out sprinted the flimsy defence to score out wide.

The final try was similar with prop Andrew Keating and scrum half Brian Slater carrying strongly, the ball was recycled quickly and Kingsley McGowan again broke away to feed Tim Maupin who scored in the corner, before Conor Kearns nonchalantly stroking over the conversion from the sideline with the last play of the game.

This was a better performance by the Students albeit against a weakened home team. Trinity now go into a much deserved two week break, they have played non stop with out a weekend off since August 24th, including the World Universities cup in Oxford, with several players playing in every game! Trinity now stand in fourth place only four points behind leaders St Marys College.

15 Conor Kearns, 14 Tim Maupin, 13 Paddy Lavelle (Kingsley McGowan 50), 12 Seb Fromm, 11 Max McFarland, 10 Jack McDermott, 9 Angus Lloyd (Brian Slater 58), 1 Eric O’Sullivan, 2 Jack Boland (Patrick Finlay 45), 3 Andrew Keating (Tom Collis 40), 4 Raef Tyrell, 5 Jack Burke, 6 Nick McCarthy, 7 Brian Du Toit, 8 Tom Ryan (Conor Gleeson 60)

On Sunday Trinity hosted the Annual “U20s Parents Day” in a wet and soggy College Park. The day as usual features a doubleheader, with the Clubs U20s teams playing back to back and the Parents enjoying a lunch in “the Pav”.

First Up The U20s Premier XV defied the wet conditions by running the ball from minute one. They ran out 78-0 winners against struggling Buccaneers with the referee calling the game on 60 minutes.

The weather dried up for the second game, and this was a nail-biter with Greystones jumping out to a 6-0 lead, but Trinity U20s Pennant XV were not to be denied and came back to score a brilliant try after virtually the whole team handled the ball! 6-5 down, they fought back against the wind and won a penalty for replacement back Bobby Fleming to stroke over for a great win a against good opposition.

Trinity J3s put in a disappointing performance losing 42-5 in Donnybrook.

Trinity J1s play St Marys College in College Park Monday night at 8pm.

Link to photos from game at weekend: https://plus.google.com/photos/+DeclanForrest13/albums/6214531991777553137