Swords RFC 8 North Kildare 15

Swords RFC 8 North Kildare 15

PROMOTION chances for Swords were dashed at the weekend following their fourth loss of the season at home to North Kildare on Sunday. Fielding with a very strong squad the Fingal men came out of the traps quickly and had crossed the Kildare line after only five minutes. Flanker Joe Fitzachary touched down following a series of quickly rucked ball and a good drive from the pack. Outhalf Richie Cowman was off target with the conversion effort but certainly Swords looked to have established an early grip on proceedings.

However, from the restart Swords fell asleep in defence and the visitors crossed over in the corner to bring the sides level. Kildare edged in front with the help of the conversion to lead 7-5. Swords cause wasn¹t helped by the dismissal of centre Matt Child for handbag antics on 25 minutes and 5 minutes later scrum half James Kubran was also sin-binned for an offence in the ruck reducing their numbers to 13.

To their credit Swords did not concede a try during this period. Child returned but came off before the break with a hamstring injury to be replaced by Robin Kiely. While North Kildare crept further ahead with a drop goal to make it 10 -5. That lead could have been stretched even further and only a fine tackle from Jim Julian over his own goal line prevented a further try to keep Swords hopes alive. Cowman¹s penalty from in front of the posts completed the opening half scoring and left swords trailing 10-8 at the break.

The second half was a mixed bag to say the least with both sides showing glimpses of their potential but neither really got the momentum to finish the other one off. Missed tackles and dropped passes on either side summed up the display of the second half and in the end a contest that promised much petered out. North Kildare recorded the only score of the half with a breakaway try 15 minutes from time. To add insult to injury the visitors were presented with the league trophy on the ALSAA pitch and Swords were left wondering what might have been. However, there was some consolation for Swords as they picked up a bonus point.

Swords RFC: M. Finnegan, S. Webb, D. Weafer, M. Child, D. Shanahan, R. Cowman, J. Kubran, C. Barrett, S. McKevitt, M. Bradley, G. Fogarty, M. Corbett, J. Julian, J. Fitzachary, S. Mulligan. Subs: R. Kiely for Child, S. Coll for Fogarty, B. Brennan for Barrett.