On a mild Saturday afternoon in Dublin 4, Trinity Rugby (DUFC) suffered their fifth defeat in a series of six league games at the hands of table-toppers Lansdowne on the back pitch of the Aviva Stadium. This was a very disappointing result for the students, who had come into the match on the back of an important win against Old Belvedere the previous week in College Park. Lansdowne were clearly the superior side and demonstrated why they sit seven points ahead of their closest challenger in the table.
Trinity started brightly and earned an early-attacking lineout five metres from the opposition line. The subsequent maul was illegally collapsed by the defending side. Out-half Jack McDermott converted the penalty kick and DUFC took a 3-0 lead. These were to be the visitors’ only points in the game. From the next kickoff onwards, Lansdowne were utterly dominant. Their first try came from a series of scrums in which Trinity consistently infringed. This led to the referee, Dudley Phillips, marching underneath the sticks to award a penalty try.
Uncharacteristically silly errors from Trinity awarded Lansdowne further chances. Having defended strongly and earned a penalty at the breakdown, they missed touch with the clearance kick. This allowed the home side to counter-attack, building enough field position to allow Leinster number 8 Max Deegan to power over. A few minutes later, some further strong defending earned Trinity a penalty, but the referee reversed it for backchat. Lansdowne kicked for the corner and a nice backline move off the back of a maul allowed them to get their third try well before half-time.
DUFC then had their best period of the game when they began to win scrum penalties of their own. This gave McDermott another opportunity to kick three points, but he was unfortunately unsuccessful. Trinity started the second half the stronger of the two sides and the strength of their scrum earned them a penalty five metres from the try line. They opted for the scrum again, looking to capitalise on their dominance with a seven pointer. However, this scrum resulted in Lansdowne being awarded a penalty and an opportunity was missed.
The Dublin 4 outfit began to up their game and re-established scrum dominance, with DUFC tight-head prop Andy Keating sin-binned. Lansdowne then made it clear why they are top of the All Ireland League with some truly clinical play. A strong forward maul earned them the bonus point try and killed off the match as a contest. From this point on, Trinity played very loosely as they were chasing the game, leading to a number of unforced errors. Lansdowne relished this and got over the line another three times to leave the final score at 45-3.
However, DUFC can point to some extenuating circumstances. Lansdowne enjoy playing on their artificial pitch by the national stadium, as it leads to a quicker game and the ball bounces in an odd way. However, the greatest difference between the two sides was that Trinity were far less clinical than their hosts. They had plenty of chances, but could not translate these into tries. There was also some sloppy play which was ruthlessly exploited by Lansdowne.
DUFC now sit in eighth position in the league. The playoffs are no longer a realistic aim with 12 points to be made up in only five games. The focus now should be on surviving in Division 1A. This will be tough, as Trinity are only three points ahead of the relegation spots. There are, however, some very winnable games to come, including the home tie against Garryowen in two weeks’ time. Trinity will look to learn from their mistakes in this disappointing match and will seek to be in much better form come March 4th.
