First Half Flurry Does The Damage For Clontarf
Garryowen’s nightmare start to life in AIB League Division 1A continued at Dooradoyle on Saturday as they slumped to an 18-3 defeat at the hands of Clontarf.
AIB LEAGUE: DIVISION 1A: Saturday, December 5
GARRYOWEN 3 CLONTARF 18, Dooradoyle
Scorers: Garryowen: Pen: Conor Murray
Clontarf: Tries: Carl de Chenu, Killian Lett; Con: Daragh O’Shea; Pens: Daragh O’Shea 2
Winless in the league since their opening night defeat of great rivals Shannon, Garryowen remain bottom of the pile on six points – albeit with a game in hand.
Paul Cunningham’s men got off to a simply awful start and were 18-0 in arrears at the interval.
Centre Killian Lett notched the opening try for ‘Tarf and left winger Carl de Chenu had another after a good movement that began from a ruck and the ball was moved out the line to the speedy winger.
Despite the heavy wind and rain, full-back Daragh O’Shea managed to convert one of the tries and he also punished Garryowen by landing two penalties.
Garryowen were disrupted by an early injury to out-half Gerry Hurley who had to go off. The hosts’ back-line was totally changed with Lorcan Bourke introduced off the bench, Willie Staunton moving to out-half and Ronan O’Mahony slotting in at full-back.
The Limerick side, who have qualified for next month’s AIB Cup semi-finals, fared slightly better in the second half but all they could muster was a penalty from promising scrum half Conor Murray.
The win has moved Clontarf level on 13 points with fourth-placed Shannon, ahead of the defending champions’ visit to Castle Avenue next Saturday.
GARRYOWEN: Willie Staunton; Ronan O’Mahony, Conan Doyle (capt), Kevin Hartigan, Diarmaid McCarthy; Gerry Hurley, Conor Murray; Rory Brosnan, Mike Sherry, Declan Lavery, Frank McKenna, Ed Mackey, Paul Neville, Anthony Kavanagh, David Sherry.
Replacements: Robert Meyer, Jason Harney, JP Cooney, Aaron McCloskey, Lorcan Bourke.
CLONTARF: Daragh O’Shea; Phil Howard, Henry Bryce, Killian Lett, Carl de Chenu; Peter O’Brien, Sean Treacy; Ciaran Kavanagh, Aaron Dundon, Niall Treston (capt), Ronan Bolger, Ben Reilly, Eoin Cremin, Peter Synott, Martin Garvey.
Replacements: Ben Barclay, Jason Harris-Wright, Niall Carson, Sean Carey, Martin Dufficy.
Referee: Alain Rolland (IRFU)