Good wins for Tallaght rugby teams in cup

THERE were big wins for Tallaght rugby club’s men’ and women’s teams in the cup at the weekend.

In the O’Connor Cup, Tallaght got the better of BGF Ravens 37-23 at Clontarf RFC while the women’s team overcame CYM 25-14 in the Paul Cusack Cup in Terenure Sports Park.

In the men’s match, the Ravens got off to a flying start scoring three tries and converting one in the first fifteen minutes to take a 17-0 lead.

Tallaght hit back with two Rob Hudson penalties either side of a Ravens penalty to make it 20-6.

Tallaght also survived a yellow card for player/coach Adam Nolan for a high tackle. Then the Ravens discipline started to desert them.

They were shown two yellow cards in quick succession for high tackles.

With a two-man advantage, Tallaght found space out wide to put Craig O’Brien in to score his first senior try for Tallaght.

Rob Hudson kicked a superb touchline conversion into the wind to reduce the deficit to 20-13.

The Ravens kicked a drop goal to make the half-time score 23-13.

In the second half, Tallaght began to dominate possession and territory.

The Ravens were attacking deep in Tallaght’s half, but the ball broke loose and when it was hacked up the field, Alex Sadiku collected it and raced away. He then offloaded to Nick McGuinness who was running a great support line to score a try.

Hudson converted to make it 23-20 to the Ravens.

Then Hudson made a great break to beat several tacklers and score a fine try.

He converted his own try and tacked on another penalty to make it 30-20 to Tallaght.

Hudson was substituted shortly afterwards but he left the field with twenty points to his name in an excellent all-round display on his birthday.

Tony McManus was turning back the clock with an all-action display in the front row.

But then he suffered a dislocated elbow that had to be reset on the pitch and everyone wishes Tony a swift recovery.

Tallaght kept dominating and they scored a fourth try when Adam Nolan’s cross-field kick was collected by Mick Corrigan to score an excellent try.

It was a deserved reward for another hard working by Corrigan covering both the back row and the wing.

Nolan converted to make the final score 37 23 to Tallaght.

Meanwhile, Tallaght women took on CYM in the Paul Cusack Cup in Terenure.

Most of the first half was fairly uneventful as neither team created many chances.

But Tallaght finally made the breakthrough five minutes before halftime when nice passing from Nicole Fanning put Niamh Moore in for a try. It left the halftime score at 5 0 to Tallaght.

The second half was a far livelier affair as both teams found their feet.

Chloe Conroy made a powerful run to gain huge ground and then Kim Littlefield set up Roisin Ni Uileagoid for the try to make it 10-0 to Tallaght.

To be fair to CYM, they didn’t give up. After consistent pressure, they forced their way over the line to score a try.

They then kicked a superb touchline conversion to make it 10-7.

Then in the next phase of play, CYM found a gap to run through to score under the posts.

The try was converted to make it 14-10 to CYM and suddenly Tallaght were losing a game they looked in complete control of ten minutes earlier.

Tallaght regathered their composure and set about rescuing the situation.

They started getting the ball wide again and Louise Leonard Flood got over in the corner to make it 15-14.

Then Leonard Flood turned provider to serve up a beautiful flat pass to put Kim Littlefield away and the Detroit native showed great pace to race away and score.

It still only left Tallaght 6 points ahead though so there were still a few nervous moments before Sam Ledden scored a try with the last play of the game to make the final score 25-14 to Tallaght.

Tallaght Head Coach Andy Grace was delighted for his team to get back to winning ways.

“We had a tough run of results in the second half of the league season.

“But today we showed the value of the hard work we’ve done in training.

“When we get the ball through the hands, we can be a very dangerous side.

“After taking a good lead, we let them back into the game.

“But we didn’t panic and just focused on getting the scores we needed and that shows real character.

“There were a lot of really great performances but Lucia Benito Marin put in a huge shift and gets player of the match.

“We’ve a tough game next weekend away to Edenderry but we’ll give it our best shot.”