Simon Collie in action for Tallaght against Terenure
Tallaght boys secure first win in Terenure
TALLAGHT Rugby Club’s men’s team made the short trip to take on Terenure in their first away league game of the season.
Terenure would draw first blood after only a couple of minutes after turning over Tallaght inside their own twenty two. Number 8 Kelvin Oko went over from close range to score a converted try to make it 7-0 to the homeside.
Not to be deterred however, Tallaght responded swiftly with a move started by Raheel Hussain ended with Rob Hudson scoring a try and then kicking the conversion to make it 7-7.
The game was back and forth in nature as Kelvin Oko would pick up his second try of the match to give 14-7 lead.
Tallaght would suffer a further blow when captain Nick McGuinness was forced to come off the pitch due to an injury causing a major reshuffle in the backline.
Rob Hudson would kick a penalty to make it 14-10 but Terenure would score further before the end of the half to make the score 24-13 in their favour as the teams approached half time.
A pivotal moment in the game came just before the end of the first half when Kevin Quinn capitalised on carries from Jordan Corrigan and Billy O’Hara to score a try making the score 24-18 at the break.
Still a sizable difference but it provided Tallaght with some much needed momentum.
This momentum was built on further after Terenure were shown a red card early on in the second half.
Simon Collie who came on at half time would further cement his legend status in the club by scoring a vintage try to make the game 24-23.
Now totally back in the game Tallaght managed to get their noses in front with Collie scoring his second try of the match and Hudson grabbing the conversion.
While Tallaght conceded plenty of penalties in the last ten minutes, the result was put beyond any reasonable doubt when Collie completed his hattrick of tries in the game after an excellent break by Daryl Maxwell, giving Tallaght the win with a final score of 37-24.
Player/coach Adam Nolan commented after the game.
“The lads produced a fantastic performance. It was another game where we were slow to get going and we were 21-10 down.
‘But again this group showed fantastic fight and a never give-up attitude to turn it around and win 37-24!
‘We lost some important players to injury but the whole squad showed spirit that any team would be proud of. It was possibly one of the best performances I’ve seen from this team in my time in charge.”
Tallaght women’s team were in action on Sunday against Balbriggan though the game had an unusual conclusion.
Tallaght had been cruising during the game picking up a very healthy lead of 31-5 however unfortunately circumstance dictated the game to be abandoned when a Balbriggan player went down with a neck injury.
The score of the game will be determined by the games committee while everyone in Tallaght RFC wishes the Balbriggan player a speedy recovery.
