A losing bonus point was scant reward for Clondalkin’s efforts in this hard fought 1st Leinster League game of the season against De La Salle Palmerstown.
A balmy September afternoon greeted the sides in Kilternan and from the whistle it was obvious that DLSP’s intention was to move the ball wide to their pacy outside backs. The home side, relegated from senior status last season have a stated intention to go straight back up again but first they have to deal with a very competitive Leinster Division 1A where wins do not come easy and they had their work cut out at scrum time where Clondalkin had the edge. However after 11 mins, DLSP forced a lineout in the Clon 22 and taking it off the top, quick hands found a gap in the away team’s defense and they touched down to score the matches first points, 5 – 0 with the conversion missed. Tenacious tackling in midfield from Clondalkin with David Jebb and Barry Mulloy to the fore denied the home team any further line breaks but they forced a penalty in the 15th minute to add an extra 3 points and extend the lead to 8. On 19 minutes, the first bout of consistent Clon pressure enabled them to kick for position in the DLSP 22 for the first time in the match. Two evenly matched sides gave very little away to each other until just over the half-hour mark when a dominant Clon scrum launched Derek Glennon into space and combining well with Colm Quinn, DLSP went off their feet at rucktime to enable Chris Jebb kick a 3 pointer which were Clon’s first points of the game.
Clon started the second half in much the same vein as the first, keeping DLSP at bay with some robust tackling. Their first foray into the DLSP half came courtesy of Ciaran O’Connor, fresh of the bench, who picked off a DLSP lineout and combined well with scrum half Eoin Delaney to force a home team infringement on their 10 metre line. Taking the penalty quickly, some quick hands from prop Conor Maloney put Niall Nolan into the clear, only for the unsighted referee to call play back for a forward pass. The momentum was with Clon at this stage with the pre-season fitness work paying dividends and after Captain Bruiser Doyle was tackled short of the line, DLSP were reduced to 14 men when their second row was sin-binned for repeated infringements. Opting for the scrum, Clon were unable to make the extra man count and settled for a 3 point drop-kick from Ben Foran on the 17th minute which narrowed the gap to just 2 points.
Just 3 minutes later, Clon were themselves reduced to 14 men when Niall Nolan was sent to the bin after some last ditch tackling on their try line. However, DLSP went on to repeat their try scoring move of the first half from quick lineout ball and the ensuing conversion extend their lead to 15 – 6 in the 23rd minute. On the 28th minute, a burst through midfield from the impressive Colm Quinn brought Clon back into the DLSP half, but the support did not come in time and the move broke down. Finishing strongly, Clon forced a lineout in the DLSP 22 and good hands saw Chris Jebb score a try in the corner and he landed the difficult kick himself to leave just 2 points between the sides. Clon saw the possibility to take a big scalp with an away victory and went looking for the winning score. However, with time running out they were guilty of a series of unforced knock-ons which put pay to any chance of a comeback and they had to settle for the bonus point loss.
Next up is the first home league match of the season on Saturday next, 3rd October against Monkstown. All support welcome with the match kicking off at 3pm.
Clondalkin 1st XV: G Black, J Jenny, B Doyle (Capt), M Doyle, J Davis, D Glennon, P Nolan, J Walshe, E Delaney, C Jebb, N Nolan, C Quinn, D Jebb, P Murphy, B Mulloy
Subs: C Maloney, C O’Connor, N Finlay, B Foran, A Tyndall
