Lansdowne 20 Barnhall 10, Ballycorus Road. 21/03/2009

Thats just Cynical

To the 3 flat (if a little sandy) pitches of Ballycorus they came. They being one man and his dog (literally, thanks Frank !). The Bees were looking to put the Killer back into Killer Bee after two close fought but ultimately winless matches against the top two.
Third placed Barnhall were in the sights and the Bees were in no mood for charity. Having lost the toss, Lansdowne kicked off into the wind (not the hurricanes of December but a decent aid nonetheless). The Bees’ intentions were stated from the off with a counter attack off a Barnhall clearance that was caught just inside the left hand touchline by “Cynical” Gavin, shipped inside to the (self proclaimed) excellent fullback and on to Justin who beat a man before shipping on to the shaven headed Carvillon the right wing who made great ground before being tackled. Lansdowne pressed, Barnhall defended but the Bees were on top in the early exchanges.
After more aggressive defence forced another turnover and a scrum, Lansdowne again used their fleet footed backs to attack. Oisin skipped to Justin who popped a nicely weighted ball to the looping Gantly who passed, yes passed to the fullback who in a two on one got his pass off to the winger. 40 yards later, the first Lansdowne had swept the Barnhall tacklers out of the ruck, the ball was swept outside to O’Halloran who skipped the fullback to Comer who drew the last man and popped to Cynical to touch down in the corner – no more than was deserved.
From the kick off, Lansdowne attacked again and, after some good work by Harvey, taken on by Gahan, were under the posts again where another penalty was conceded by the ragged Barnhalldefence. Gantly struck the ball through the posts and the Bees were 8-0 up.
A game Barnhall came again and more excellent defence repelled their every advance. Eventually though they got one on one with cynical who tackled his man and cynically allowed their backrow to rake his back before the ref blew up and sent him to the bin for blatant use of back on boot – personally, I have never the seen the like and I hope the winger has learnt his lesson!
Eventually Barnhall managed to make good use of the wind, got into good position, earned a penalty and struck 3 points for their efforts.
The 2nd half saw Lansdowne continue to dominate the tackle area forcing errors from their less motivated and organised opposition.
A 2nd try was coming with Lansdowne playing for and winning good territory on the occasions that Barnhallmanaged to get any sort of field position in the Lansdowne half. It came after more good work from the forwards. A couple of Munster balls drew in the defence and left the tiniest gap that the eagle eyed and ever-youthful McDermott spotted. He picked and charged down the touchline reminiscent of Noel Mannion running down the line on the old Arms Park in Cardiff all those years ago. Kev expertly evaded the non-existent defence to gleefully touch down under the posts. Rumour has it that Kev later had a word with a certain winger regarding the timing of try celebrations !!
Lansdowne looked to press home the advantage that their hard work had earned but conceded a somewhat soft try – allowing the Barnhall out half to cut back against the play and evade the defence, which for the only time on the afternoon switched off and wasn’t up in their faces. The after match interviews were notable for each and all talking about the need to maintain concentration at all times during games, especially next week in the cup against a good ‘tarfteam (who were well beaten in their play off quarter final at the weekend). There was still plenty of time for the Bees to reassert their dominance and sure enough, they did. More aggressive defence, good field position and attacking play from backs and forward brought its reward when Gahan was able to pick a loose ball and drop over the line for an easy score but one no doubt borne of the hard work of the previous 75 minutes.
The final score of 20-10 probably didn’t reflect Lansdowne’s dominance but is a reflection that not firing at full attacking speed this team is a force to be reckoned with.
They will enter next weeks’ massive Winters cup first round match as slight favourites but as we saw later on this momentous Saturday being favourites isn’t enough to win matches. Just as O’Gara did, this team must take the hits, soak up the pressure and still come back for more – just as it has done all season. With this superb attitude and desire to win, a captain and manager can surely only ask for more of the same next week. Although if we stay the same, we will probably go backwards so we need to up our game and concentration levels again next week for the biggest match of the season to date. This reporter can’t wait for next weeks’ instalment of Killer Bee rugby.

Man of the Match: Justin Cormer

written by Keith Herman

match photos taken by Jeff Iszeham and Ed Bruce

Team

1: Gabriel Portier 2: Micheal O'Halloran 3: Peter Geoghegan 4: Paul Harvey 5: Robert Moore 6: Adam Kavanagh 7: Conor Gahan 8: Ed Bruce 9: Daniel O'Brian 10: Oisin O'Cuinneagain 11: Rory Gavin 12: Eoin Gantly 13: Justin Comer 14: Gearoid Carvill 15: Keith Herman (c) Subs: Jeff Iszeham, Kevin McDermot, Will Sparks and Conor McKenna.

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