Trinity travelled to Galway on Saturday to play in the 2nd round of the AIB Cup. Their opponent Galwegians are in the 1st Division and fielded a very experienced XV with several Connacht players in their squad.
Trinity started brightly dominating the opening stages of the game. They enjoyed field position into a slight breeze and tried hard to settle into their pattern. In the 15th minute the students were first on the scoreboard, when after several phases of play Centre Richard Brady broke the line to put his partner Conor Colclough through a gap. Colclough in turn fed hooker Mark Murdoch who drew the last defender and put left wing Colin Murphy in for a well executed try.
Trinity continued to look good in all aspects of their game, they stood up well in the physical exchanges against far bigger and experienced men. In the 25th minute the referee made what looked a harsh decision and sin binned Trinity tight head prop James Gethings. This was particularly harsh when other repeated transgressions seemed to be ignored.
During this 10 minute spell, Galwegians scored three tries to take a 19-5 lead. Two of the tries came from the scrum. Trinity could have helped themselves on two of the three tries as the defence was poor.
In the second half Galwegians pressured hard to finish off the game, but scrambling Trinity defence kept them out.
Kevin Bukley replaced Mark Murdoch in the 55th minute and he made a telling contribution later in the game.
The students then had their purple patch and came back into the game. Out half Dave Joyce ran through a gap in the Galwegians defence and passed back inside to Alan ‘Dozy’ Mathews who ran in under the posts. Joyce converted.
At 19-12 the game was evenly poised. Both teams had their opportunities. Trinity perhaps played too much rugby in the wrong part of the field. Eventually they were punished for this and gave the home team a soft try.
To their credit the visitors came straight back and from a line out Kevin Buckley showed impressive strength and crashed over from close in.
At 24-17 Trinity were still in with a sniff. But again they were penalized under their posts while in possession. Galwegians kicked the points with the last kick of the game.
Next week Trinity are back in College Park and AIBL action. They host DLSP at 2.30pm.
