Coolmine 57 - Malahide 0 U15s

Coolmine 57 – 0 Malahide Saturday 14th November 2015

“The Biggest game of the season so far!!”. These are the words used by coach and team manager Ciaran to describe the game against Malahide in his call to arms on WhatsApp. The team duly responded with a larger than normal turnout for the Friday evening training session. Drills for the forwards and backs went well. Areas for improvement were highlighted and worked on. A steely determination was palpable among the group as they left that evening. 

Saturday came and with it came the rain. Would it ever stop? Is there any chance that the game will go ahead? How could the pitch possibly be playable? Many a pint was had on the Saturday night on the basis that these questions would be answered negatively the following morning and a lie in would replace this eagerly anticipated match.

But NO. The grounds man had performed miracles, and at 9.30, confirmation was received that we were going to war at midday. Warm up commenced at 11, and the referee for the day called the captains together during this session and explained what he wanted. No foul play, no back chat, no repeated fouling. How one of the captains must now be wishing that he had actually listened. The game kicked off and the first few minutes were spent with the teams getting to grips with each other. There were a number of silly penalties for issues around the ruck in the early minutes. An issue with the ball size brought the game to a halt for a few minutes. Seemingly all the Malahide Under 15’s balls are size 5, but Coolmine’s are only size 4. Agreement to use the smaller specimen was eventually brokered and the game continued.

After 10 minutes, Coolmine were piling some serious pressure on the Malahide forwards. One penalty followed another, and despite repeated warnings by the ref, the fouls continued. The yellow card was out and the Malahide man was off for 10 minutes. Amazingly, one of the other Malahide players thought that this would be a good time to directly question the referee’s parentage, which unsurprisingly earned him a spell in the bin as well. With 15 against 13, the first score had to come and through sustained pressure Ben Griffin eventually broke the line.

The numerical advantage was cruelly exposes a couple of minutes later when Max Gerhardt fielded the restart in his own 22. With one of those jinky runs, he proceeded to run the ball back under their 

posts with hardly a hand been laid upon him. Coolmine continued to press, but their next score came just before half time, when Malahide were back to full strength. Several patient phases of play from 10 metres out were eventually rewarded when Ben Colgan broke through the line for the final score of the first half. Coolmine 21 – 0 Malahide.

Unfortunately for Malahide, the 2nd half started where the first left off. Probably one of the most popular scorers of the day got the first try of the 2nd half, when Jack Fitz used his strength to bundle 

the ball over in the right hand corner. With a tricky wind to deal with, Louis eventually lost his 100% 

kicking record with only the first missed conversion of the day. 4 minutes later, Max crossed the whitewash in the right corner after some lovely back play that involved Liam and Conor Dunne as well.

Malahide began to show some fight and were close to crossing the Coolmine line for the first time, when the ball was lost and some quick play released Dean down the left wing. With only one player 

to beat, he was cynically tackled with a straight arm to the neck that left him poleaxed on the ground for several minutes. Thankfully there was no serious damage done, but the ref had no alternative than to issue a 3rd yellow card of the day to Malahide. From the ensuing penalty. Conor Kelly received the ball and made tremendous yards through the middle of the pitch and looked like he might make it himself at one point. Desperate tackles eventually saw him brought to ground but Ben Griffin was on hand for his 2nd and Coolmines 6th.

With 15 minutes left, and the game as good as over, Coolmines ruthless streak remained. Good work by Fionn on the 18 minute mark, saw him make some good yards before releasing Harry on the left, 

who worked hard to cross the line under a mountain of Malahide defenders. Max got the first hat-

trick of the afternoon, with another fantastic solo run, but Ben Griffin wasn’t to be denied either and with 3 minutes remaining he also crossed the line for the 3rd time.

Final score 57 – 0 to Coolmine. Size 4 or Size 5. I think it’s obvious who has the bigger balls !!

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Coolmine 36 - Navan 0 (U16s League)

Coolmine proved too strong for Navan in an emphatic win at Ashbrook. The game was played in awful conditions but the excellent pitch held up very well. After twenty minutes Navan were well in the game with the only score being an unconverted try after five minutes. 

However three tries for the home team in the final ten minutes of the half put them in a commanding position. Coolmine went on to control the second half and ran out comprehensive winners.

 

The team are now two from two in the league & next week travel to Wanderers for what is sure to be a very interesting tussle.

 

Wicklow 22 Coolmine 0 Leinster League Div 1B

Wet and Windy Wicklow Woes

This was not an easy day for the squad who have had a superb run up to now. No matter what way we look at this, the home side were hungrier from the get go and wanted this more.

While the conditions were truly awful to start with, their more weighty pack made the difference in what was never going to be a rugby spectacle.

They started with almost a full press forward game and with wet conditions aiding the forward play our scrums came under pressure early on.

Aided by a wind that sheared diagonally across the pitch, the first half was spent almost entirely in our half.

We made hard work of our clearances and their back row left little to take around the fringes.

Emboldened by their strong scrummaging they opted for the corner when awarded a penalty for Coolmine going in at the side.

The resulting drive from their take-down in the lineout wasn't met quickly enough by us and they steamrolled in for their first try: 7-0 to the good with conversion.

We weren't clicking like normal and spent much of the half defending, some times quite well, others not so. 

There were a couple of flashes of that high tempo game we've made our own in that opening period but the slippery conditions made hard work of any fast play and inevitably ended up in a set piece where we were struggling.

It wasn't all one way in the scrum with Coolmine getting a couple over on Wicklow as well but their back row and back three kept the pressure on both at the break down and out wide and we failed to get any rythm going. 

A brighter period for Coolmine coincided with the brighter weather which cleared up but the big boot of their full back kept us pinned back in our own half and a knock on in our 22 gifted them a scrum. From this they were awarded a penalty - 10 - 0 to Wicklow 

Coolmine go back up into again and pushed hard, winning a penalty which went to their corner but the ball was adjudged not straight which confounded us watching the game and they were let off. Probably the best chance of the game for us to score as we had played much better for that period.

A big scrum almost won us the ball back and we up the pressure but they managed to clear all the way back to our 22.

A scrum to them in front of the posts and a try worked from it, was a bit of a spirit crusher as we had made all the play before that. 17 - 0 to them.

The second half saw a much improved performance from Coolmine and we shut them out for long periods but we really only edged our way into a scoring chance perhaps twice in that second half.

Greg Culhane put in a storming final 15 with one wonderful solo turnover effort.

I counted about one penalty to us for that period (we opted for the corner) and maybe half a dozen at least to Wicklow. 

They crossed for a scrappy try after what looked like a cross over by them but our protests came to nothing.

22 - 0 it stayed for the rest of the game with most of the play in the middle of the pitch - Wicklow not really able to get anymore on us but Coolmine looking like we didn't have the ammo to test them.

Our one clear chance saw the ball rifled behind the runner into touch on their 5 metre line - it summed up our day.

Malahide won't be any easier.

Need to hit the reset button and get back into our win mode asap.

Final score Coolmine 0 - Wicklow 22