J2 League Wanderers V Monkstown Report.
19/10/2007
J2 League Wanderers 27 Monkstown 13
Wanderers and Monkstown played out an entertaining and exciting encounter on Saturday in Merrion Road.
Wanderers got off to a poor start as Monkstown took the game to them in the pack , playing with aggression and displaying some excellent rucking . They took a 3-0 lead early on as a result of poor discipline from the Wanderers pack and then extended the lead to 10-0 scoring a try following a drop goal attempt that hit the post and rebounded into the arms of the Monkstown centre.
Wanderers hit back with the forwards upping their game and the backs running with greater intent and scored a converted try from Brian McFadden and unconverted try from Dave Jelly to bring the scores to 12-10 at the half.
Wanderers opened the second half by taking the game to Monkstown but they replied in kind and more poor discipline from the Wanderers pack resulted in Monkstown taking a 13-12 lead from a penalty.
Both packs slugged it out for dominance with neither taking control and Wanderers were luck to score a 3rd try midway through the half following a good run from Robert McCarthy.
Monkstown hit back and only some excellent tackling kept them out . Wanderers broke away and in the last minute scored a 4th try from Eoin Goulding in the corner to run out 27-13 winners.
All of the backline played well and had their moments , in particular Andrew ,Robert, Enda and Dave, whist the pick of a hard working pack were Bill o Meara, Eoghan Kenny whilst MOTM was William Martin Smith.
Coaches Comment:
The performance and result was much better than the previous week, with the pack in particular showing significant improvement.
One area which continues to be a concern is that of team discipline, which needs to improve dramatically. There are a couple of “usual suspects” who continue to open their gob out of turn, and this will be addressed .