- Jack Kelly carries his team forward in Saturday’s UBL match against Bruff in Limerick. Photo by Peter Wolfe
DUFC 12
Rory McCarthy
Deputy Sports Editor
At the time of writing this report, there was exactly fifty days to Christmas. There is also fifty days to the birthday of Brian Du Toit. This newspaper doesn’t want to propagate a correlation between Jesus Christ and the ex-Kings Hospital flanker but after another miracle-inducing performance in Limerick, this reporter is convincingly saying that Brian Du Toit is the second coming of our Lord!
Obviously that is a stretch but Du Toit delivered another sterling performance for the students against Bruff RFC where DUFC ran out winners 12-6. Cathal Marsh had a flawless performance with the boot getting 4 from 4 but the penalties were made possible by Du Toit’s ferocious work at the breakdown where he earned two of the penalties that Marsh converted. It was by some distance Trinity’s first major test of the season. Away from home in Munster for the first time this year against a team that have a formidable reputation in Kilballyowen Park, the students would need to have their heads screwed on and their hearts full of character. In the end Trinity delivered a flat but not unremarkable performance with Marsh, David Fanagan and Alan McDonald all having good games.
The most eye-catching statistic of the game is that DUFC did not have even one phase in the Bruff ’22 during the entire eighty minutes. All their points came from penalties conceded around the 10-meter line but amazingly DUFC never had one incursion into the opposition ‘22. It was classic cup rugby eerily reminiscent of Ulster’s win in Thomond Park in the Heineken Cup last year. Trinity with their teak tough openside Du Toit and their accurate kicker Marsh took their penalties and rode their luck repelling multiple attacks on their own line.
Trinity have played four sides now and all of these sides make up the bottom four of Division 1B. Bruff with this defeat fell into the bottom three and despite the closeness of the score there was a sense of frailty about Bruff. The endeavors of Pat Lynch, Mark Cosgrove and Mike Carroll were all admirable but one can’t help but think that a firm pitch and dry day would see most teams rip them apart. They lack pace out wide and their scrum was on the back-foot for most of the afternoon. Their lineout through Lynch and Cathal O’Regan performed excellently with plenty of variation and speed combined with accuracy and a rumbling maul. However that will only take you so far in Division 1B and their limitations will cause them trouble this season when the bigger tests such as UCD, Malone and Buccaneers come around.
Trinity nonetheless can only face the tests that are in front of them and the game against Bruff was about result first, performance second. Trinity were guilty of trying to play with too much width throughout the game. An eagerness to go wide is attractive and admirable but without focus and direction by committing numbers up the middle first then it is all too easy for the opposition defence to drift with the wide pattern employed and use the touchline as an extra defender.
Trinity did achieve some go-forward ball when they used the likes of the abrasive Paddy Lavelle and dynamic Ariel Robles up the middle before going wide. Also prominent with his carrying was Jack Dilger. To call Dilger ‘direct’ would be to give an unappreciative sense of undeviating movement to the word. Dilger consistently game after game cleans up scrappy and untidy ball by taking the dross possession up to the heart of the defensive line. It may not be pretty and may not get recognition from fans more used to watching more dynamic runners such as Hanratty or Adelokun but their undertakings couldn’t happen without Dilger’s directness.
Trinity got their first points four minutes into the first half when Fanagan made an excellent break from his own half and was hauled down outside the Bruff 10 metre line. Bruff went off their feet attempting to remove Du Toit and Marsh duly added the penalty. Trinity lacked patience and focus but got another penalty when Bruff went in the side at the halfway and Marsh again pinged it to make it 6-0. Then after a penalty for offside from a kick again at the 10 metre line Marsh made it 9-0. Bruff got their first points at the start of the second half after a good carry-run from Cosgrove was rewarded when Lavelle went off his feet. Marsh responded immediately when Du Toit forced Bruff to concede a penalty for infringing at the breakdown. That made it 12-3 and despite the Limerick side’s multiple expeditions into the Trinity red-zone the students defence never yielded to give away a try.
As a result of the pressure exerted upon the Trinity line, the students gave away numerous penalties that referee John Peak should have punished with a yellow card. More remarkable than his reluctance to sinbin infringers was the passivity of the home crowd who seemed to accept elements of Trinity’s cynical defense as part and parcel of the game. Munster crowds are well known for the vocal hostility and teams such as Garryowen or Young Munster wouldn’t have needed reminding that this was a student team perhaps susceptible to the cliché that university sides lack mental toughness. DUFC don’t fit that bill. In seven days they play Malone. The Ulster outfit will have Robbie Diack, Niall O’Connor and Conor Joyce all lining out for them. It is fifty days to Christmas but a win against Malone will see it come early for Trinity.
