NUIM BARNHALL RFC 1XV 2011/2012
NUIM BARNHALL RFC 29 – ARDS RFC 3
Halloween weekend saw a devilishly good NUIM BARNHALL RFC side pay a visit to ARDS RFC for there latest AIL encounter. Arriving in the hollowing wind and rain did not dampen any spirits from the visiting side and with a fired up team in need of a valuable away win and with the return or Captain fantastic Eoin Hogan to rally his side made a great start along with some wonderful line breaks from Dave Stewart and the ever speedy Rob Hopkins. Ards proved reslent in there defence and managed to push the visitors back which eventually lead to a silly penalty given away by NUIM BARNHALL which was converted by number 10, P Cox to take first blood and make 3-0 after 11mins.
The visitors had to continue to wait and defend against a equally fired up Ards side which and eventually pushed the home side back with some wonderful tackling from Barry Dunne and Gareth Murray which allowed NUIM BARNHALL RFC to retake the ball on the half way line and with some great attacking a pin point offload by Dave Stewart to Rob McGrath gave him the opportunity to kick it up a gear and broke the Ards Defence to run in a lovely tri after 20mins, but with the wind still hollowing did not allow Simon Gillespie to take the extra 2 points and it kept the score at 3-5.
After the restart the Mr Conor “Two Tall” McDermott continued to prove his worth with some great ball carrying which allowed the visitors to gain precious yardage off the rucks and push Ards back and kept them in there own half for long periods. With new NUIM BARNHALL RFC head coach Magnum PI rallying the team from the side line kept the visitors on the front foot and this forced Ards to eventually give away a penalty after 33mins which was converted by Simon Gillespie to make it 3-8 to the visitors. The NUIM BARNHALL RFC pack then gave a lesson in scrummaging and counter rucking to the large supporting crowd who came to watch this spooky encounter, but had to wait until the second half before really kicking into gear and with some great attacking play from Connor Quinn and Tom “The Tank” McKeown kept the pressure on the home side to defend hard against this NUIM BARNHALL RFC onslaught which eventually allowed Simon Gillespie to again break the Ards defence and with some great awareness found Dave Stewart who offloaded to Rob Hopkins who slipped in over the Ards Tri line and with Simon Gillespie steady foot brought the score line to 3-15 for the visitors. After the restart young Padraic Beatty was brought on to help keep the pack on form and continue there dominance, but the home side showed what a strong side they are and who would not give this game to the visitors and pushed NUIM BARNHALL back for a short period. The Visitors then brought on Michael Brown to add another Dimension to the back line along with Eoin “You get me up and I’ll get the ball” McCeary and Eoin Beatty to the pack. With the Introduction of Eoin McCeary to the line instantly changed the game and he managed to steal three consecutive balls from the home side and on the third steal gave NUIM BARNHALL RFC the chance to counter attack with the force of Conor McDermott breaking multiple tackles to charge towards the Ards Tri line, but Ards defended well and managed to stop him just short, this gave the pack the chance to power drive the scrum over the Ards line and this allowed Barry Dunne to touch down for a well worked tri, which was again converted by Simon Gillespie to make it 3-22 to the visitors. NUIM BARNHALL RFC did not see this and job done and with 5 minutes to go went in search of the Bonus Point and who better to take up this challenge then Barry Dunne who with some great support from his pack got over the line with little time to spare for another well worked tri and the on form Simon Gillespie again stepped up and took the extra 2 points to bring the game to 3-29 and that was all she wrote and were it finished on the day, finally score NUIM BARNHALL RFC 29 – ARDS RFC 3 with the visitors picking up another away bonus point. Don’t forget next week the 5th of November at 2.30pm when the Blue Bulls take on Nenagh Ormond RFC at home in Parsonstown. Come down and try our Pre-Match Lunch from 1.20pm (Tickets only €20).
| NUIM Barnhall RFC | |
| Position | Name |
| 1 | Jim Nolan |
| 2 | Gareth Murray |
| 3 | Ray Dufficy |
| 4 | Marcus Doyle |
| 5 | Conor McDermott |
| 6 | Tom McKeown |
| 7 | Conor Quinn |
| 8 | Barry Dunne |
| 9 | Rob Holt |
| 10 | Eoin Hogan (c) |
| 11 | Rob McGrath |
| 12 | Simon Gillespie |
| 13 | David Stewart |
| 14 | Mark Kavannah |
| 15 | Ryan Hopkins |
| 16 | Conor Harding |
| 17 | Paraic Beatty |
| 18 | Eoin McCreary |
| 19 | Michael Brown |
| 20 | Eoin Beatty |
