Scottish Universities 0 Irish Colleges 47pts

Dark grey skies, bitter cold temperature and a soft , heavy pitch greeted the Irish Colleges when they took on the Scottish Universities at Peppermill Rd., the home to Edinburgh Universities impressive floodlit sports grounds. The Irish students were hoping to follow up there convincing victory over the Welsh colleges with another victory and no stone had been left unturned by the teams mentors in there effort to achieve this. The Irish Colleges started strongly and after 15 minutes, following some good phases of continuity, Eric Moloney streaked over for the first try of the night. Outhalf Keelan McGowan, who was winning his first Irish Colleges Cap, narrowly missed the conversion. Over the following 25 minutes, Colm Murphy, Stephen Corr ,Dave Houston and finally Hooker Ollie McCormack all went in for tries as the Scottish struggled to deal with the committed and aggressive manner in which the Irish Students approached the game. Keelan McGowan successfully converted all remaining four tries in the first half to leave the game decidedly in favour of the Irish Students at 33pts to nil.

The Second half began in a similar fashion to the first; the Irish boys attacking the game with a brand of fire that Gareth Fitzgerald and Alex Ryan helped bring to the performance. Considering the conditions, both teams were playing expansive rugby; with the ball being moved at pace from side to side as both teams sought out weaknesses in the other teams cover. Stephen Corr then had two tries in the first ten minutes, which essentially decided the game. McGowan converted both and one wondered would these blows in quick succession knock the stuffing completely out of the Scots. However, over the remaining 30 mins., the Irish Third level team saw a completely different Scottish side to the one who had conceded 47 points. The pattern of the game completely changed, with the Irish side failing to add to there scoring tally and the Scottish side coming alive and putting together attack after attack on the Irish line. Scotland were now playing with a new determination that had been curiously absent in the first half. Only some heroic defence kept the Scottish Students from crossing over the Irish line, with captain Michael McKeever leading by example with some bone crunching tackling in the centre. When the final whistle went, the score of 47 points to nil in favour of the Irish colleges was extremely flattering and indeed on another day, anybody present for the final period of the game would think that the Scots would offer a far tougher test. However this is not to take away from a very impressive Irish Colleges team, who excelled in all the various aspects of the game. The running at pace when presented with fast clean ball, by the Irish backs, was something to be admired and the decision making when presented with attacking opportunities was fast and clinical. With two victories giving the Irish Colleges team a 100% record for the season, team manger Don Spicer and all involved , can look back with a huge sense of satisfaction at what were very impressive performances.

The ICRU team which played against the Scottish Universities:

POSITION COLLEGE CLUB
FULLBACK
15 Darragh Hughes Garda College Garda RFC
WINGS
14 Pat O’Connor LIT Shannon
13 Eric Moloney CIT UCC
CENTRES    
12 Michael McKeever ( Captain) UUJ Harlequins
11 Francis Cooney DIT DLSP
OUTHALF    
10 Keelan McGowan NCI Blackrock
SCRUM HALF    
9 Alex Ryan CCC Cork Constitution
PROP    
1 Colum Murphy DIT Blackrock
HOOKER    
2 Ollie McCormack ITT Dublin St. Mary's
PROP    
3 Garrett Fitzgerald NCI Blackrock
2nd ROWS    
4 Francis Broderick UL Garryowen
5 David Houston UUJ City of Derry
BACKROWS    
6 Brian Moroney ITT Dublin Terenure
7 Colin Finnerty AIT Buccaneers
8 Stephen Corr UUM City of Derry
RESERVES    
16 Sam Duffy NWI Derry City of Derry
17 James Taggart UUJ Ballymena
18 Philip O’Connor LIT Old Crescent
19 Adrian Hanley Garda College Buccaneers
20 Ben Clements UUJ Ballymena
21 Jeff Hitchmough CIT Middleton
22 Stephen Carey LIT Young Munster