U-16 Friendly - Barnhall

Barnhall 18 Swords 17

SWORDS youth side went down by just a single point away to Barnhall last week, in a game they came so close to winning. Missing a couple of key figures, Swords turned their opponents over and looked close to sealing their third win in a row, leading 17-8 in the second half. But Barnhall came back strong and in the end Swords had to take heart from a brave performance, albeit without the desired result. Swords put Barnhall under pressure immediately from the kick-off with Dave Reilly putting in a huge tackle on the catcher and the rest of the pack driving Barnhall backwards and into touch.

From the resulting lineout, Swords attacked several times and despite the Barnhall defence being very strong, they were slowly being pushed deeper and deeper. After several plays, Peter Carr attacked down the blindside and Niall Hewson had a man to spare when crossing the line close to the corner.
Swords conceded an unfortunate penalty from the kick-off, and Barnhall choose to tap quickly and move the ball through the hands, eventually running in a try with men to spare. With both conversions missed, the scores were even at 5-5 and a lively game was only a quarter the way through. Swords restarted like they had begun, but Barnhall pushed back and some silly penalties allowed them clear their lines and another penalty in the Swords half gave them a shot at goal.

They were narrowly wide with the kick, but the referee claimed the Swords players had moved during the kick and allowed a retake. The second effort split the posts and Barnhall had an 8-5 lead. At this stage, the Swords forwards were on top but the backs were finding it difficult to breach a very well organised Barnhall defence. Still though, they retained possession and after several phases, Dave Foley broke from the back of a ruck and the big number beat several tackles over 22 yards to score under the posts. The conversion however was unsuccessful lead 10-8 at half time lead.

Barnhall dominated possession and territory for the second half and the Swords defence had the job of digging in and surviving the pressure. Swords managed to turn over the ball in defence for Ray Boland to run the 80 yards for a score under the posts, a try which Peter Carr converted. A 17-8 lead gave the Swords defence even more encouragement, but it was very tiring on the legs and when they did turn over the ball they weren't able to get any good field position out of it. A harsh penalty for what seemed good defence was deemed a dangerous tackle, and Barnhall converted from 35 yards to bring it back to 17-11.

At this stage, Swords determination at the kick off was beginning to fade and their tiredness was resulting in even more penalties being conceded.
Unfortunately, their blindside defence was to let them down yet again and the Barnhall kicker converted from wide out to take a one point lead into the last 5 minutes. This brought out the best in both teams yet again, and the crowd - which included former Munster, Ireland and Lions legend Mick Galwey - were served up a thrilling finale which saw both sides put every last bit of effort they had into the game to try secure the desired result. In the end, Barnhall were able to hold out and turned over possession on the last play and rushed it into touch, to secure their one point victory.

Overall, Barnhall¹s dominance of possession and territory, particularly in the second half, probably meant that they deserved the result. Yet again the importance of the kick offs are in deciding a rugby match was on display and for this young Swords team, they will have to learn the lesson of what happens when failing to deal with these and playing too deep within your own half as a result. Training continues on Fridays at 5.30pm, with games most weekends so we look forward to seeing many more numbers on the ALSAA rugby pitches in the near future. Contact John Prendergast (0868236467) or Dave Kelliher (0879936982) for further details.

Swords RFC - Chris Long, Sean Healey, Ray Boland, Niall Hewson, Peter Carr, Martin Ryan, Sean Tracey, Dave Foley, Brendan Linnane, Eoin O' Hobain, Eoghan Logan, Liam Linnane, Dave Reilly.