Lansdowne 15 Unidare 8, Ballycorus Rd. 10/01/2009

Paperweight Pete Pounces!

In these tough times, it is assumed that many charities will suffer as belts are tightened and purses dry up. Well, having coughed up a losing bonus point to the gentleman of Glasnevin, I can assure you all that the charitable spirit is alive and well on the Lansdowne Killer Bees...
On a day when many oilrigs were banning people from going on deck, when one of the most serious injuries could have been inflicted on the sideline by a flying dustbin, when even the mighty Kev could find little purchase with his size 14s, Lansdowne attempted to kickstart their season. A good omen was that the team accountant managed only one late fine, but this was balanced by the extraordinary sight of a Scotsman coughing up for an earlier fine, truly a remarkable moment, apparently the reverend Jesse Jackson was spotted crying in the crowd..... Indeed everything was falling into place despite the gale. An early try from captain caveman Chris settled the nerves, another by his partner in crime ( and a first club try ) by the ever young Peter Geegooghahan. Having settled down to a fast pace it looked like Unidare were about to have a bad day at the office. Another try by Lansdowne put the victory in the bag, and then, as always, the good natured boys of the Killer Bees kicked into unicef mode, and began their "help the less fortunate" programme for another saturday afternoon.
Despite being asked specifically for a more robust attitude prior to the match, the foot was firmly removed from the pedal. Following on from a fairly innocent set of circumstances which ended in a footrace and a Unidare try, Lansdowne began throwing the ball badly at each other, making isolated unsupported breaks, drifting across the pitch, overcomplicating the lineout and generally anything that would be the wrong thing to do in a force 12 gale.... disapointingly but not surprisingly Unidare began to play to the elements considerably better than Lansdowne.
Despite the isolated attempts by Matt Allen and Nick Jones to up the ante, support seemed slow to react. Oisin "two apples in a hankie" O'Cuinnegean and Eoin "exploding breakfast roll" Gantly tried to get behind the first line of defence, but the last pass was forced and more often than not, failed to go to hand. Man of the match Andy Fleming threw himself about and pounced on loose lineout all day, but in the tight I looked on jealously, with all the Unidare bodies lying on the wrong side of the ruck it was like kicking fish in a barrell. And yet nothing but charity.....
No scores in the second half highlighted what a thriller it was. And like a one legged marathon runner, the match limped into full time. Yay. We won.
Highlights of the match had to go to Chris Reid's lineout throwing. He was called up for 'not straight' a few times, most impressively when he threw it direct to our scrum half. Also Big Gants took one for the team by using his head to make a dint in the Unidare defense. "Where there is no sense there is no feeling".

Having initially discounted the performance due to the poor conditions, upon retrospect, consider this: Old wesley beat the warriors 69-0 on the pitch beside us. The conditions didn't seem to hamper their performance too badly......

Man of the match: Andy Fleming.

written by Philip McGoldrick

Team

1: Chris Reid 2: Peter Geoghegan 3: Gabriel Portier 4: Michael o Halloran 5: Robert Moore 6: Andy Fleming 7: Paddy Malone 8: Nick Jones 9: Matt Allen 10: Oisin O'Cuinnegain 11: Will Sparks 12: Eoin Gantly 13: Ross Bloomfield 14: Tommy Malone 15: Keith Herman (c) Subs: Jeff Iszeham, Rory Gavin, Conor O'Sullivan, Adam Kavanagh, Paul Harvey, Millan Alonso and Justin Cormer.

Match photos below - (taken by Ed Bruce)