Tallaght could only draw with Athy in their first league game of the season
Tallaght held by Athy in first match of campaign
TALLAGHT RFC took on Athy at home in their first league game of the season, the game on Saturday took place in the Tymon North Park.
The first five games of the season are critical as their performances in these games will determine whether they play in the rest of the season in Division 8 or Division 9.
The match would not start well for Tallaght as Athy would score the first try within the opening minute of the game.
An intercepted ball caught by their speedy winger would allow them to take a 5-0 lead which was very shortly increased to 7-0 as they scored the conversion.
Tallaght would dominate possession for the remainder of the half however struggled to convert this possession into scores due to some handling errors.
Jonah Hurley would eventually break from a ruck and popped a pass to player-coach Adam Nolan to score a try from close range.
Rob Hudson was on hand to score the conversion which levelled the game to 7-7.
Tallaght’s discipline however proved to be a factor that went against their favour and after repeated engaging with the referee had a penalty awarded against them.
Athy would convert the penalty and head into the interval with a narrow 10-7 lead.
Tallaght unfortunately failed to change their fortunes in the second half and again found themselves victim of simple errors and poor decision making breaking down promising moves.
Thankfully Athy also seemed to be suffering from the same affliction and a poor second half saw neither team manage to score a try.
Luckily for Tallaght Rob Hudson was successful in scoring a long range penalty five minutes from time which was enough for them to draw level and avoid losing the game. The final score read 10-10.
Player coach Adam Nolan wasn’t impressed with his team’s performance.
“It was good that we stayed in the game and earned two points for the draw.
‘But it was frustrating because we didn’t implement our game plan at all.
‘Our discipline was poor and players need to get it into their heads that you can’t talk to referees like that in this sport.
‘The numbers at training have been disappointing and when you don’t train together, you get scratchy performances like that with no understanding between players.
‘You can’t just run a few drills in the warm-up and hope that will work out in a match.
‘A lot of players need to have a hard look at themselves and decide if they really want to be part of this team.”
“We were wearing our new kit which was provided by Smoke Management Systems, our new shirt sponsors. I just want to thank them on behalf of the players and everyone at the club.”
Jonah Hurley was awarded man of the match for his performance during the game.
