The Tribesmen continued their recent fine form when they met the Dublin City Exiles last Saturday at South Park, The Claddagh. After a tough battle away in Cork the previous week, the Tribesmen significantly tightened up their defence and ran in 9 unanswered tries. The game was played in warm but blustery conditions as is customary at South Park and the Tribesmen turned up the heat as early as the 9th minute with a fine break down the right flank which resulted in a try for Eddie Weaver. Peter O’Neill converted to put the home team ahead by 6 points. The Exiles attempted to establish a foothold and applied pressure close the Tribesmen line but strong defence kept the Exiles out over repeated sets. The Tribesmen eventually regained possession and another break down the right resulted in Weaver’s 2nd try and with the conversion secured by O’Neill the Tribesmen were 12 -0 up after 15 minutes.
The restart kick from the Exiles bounced in goal and went dead into touch which resulted in a goal line drop out from the Tribesmen giving the Exiles the impetus once again, however a knock on 5 metres out from the Tribesmen line meant that the Exiles had once again given up possession. The Tribesmen up made some good ground through some hard running by the forwards and Enda Stanford continued his good form following on from his brace of tries the previous week to secure a four pointer. O’Neill duly added the 2 points to increase the lead to 18-0. The Exiles continued to attempt to gain traction but were let down again by poor handling knocking the ball on 30 metres from the Tribesmen line. When the Tribesmen regathered possession they worked their way down the field once more and Aaron Byrne crashed over the line to register 4 points. With O’Neill uncharacteristically missing the conversion this put the score at 22-0 and this was how the first half finished.
The Exiles showed great resolve at the start of the 2nd half and a few minutes of sustained pressure near the Tribesmen line showed great promise but yet another knock on handed the ball back to the Tribesmen and a great break resulted in relative newcomer Seosamh McDonagh scoring his first try. O’Neill resumed his metronome like kicking standard to add the 2 points. Peter O’Neill added his own try just a couple of minutes later and added the conversion to put the score at 34-0 after 49 minutes. Unfortunately for the Exiles, the kick restart went straight into the arms of big Tongan centre Mata Fifita and a rampaging 60 metre run down the left wing swatting off would be tacklers gained the Tribesmen good field position 10 metres out from the Exiles lines. From the resulting play the Tribesmen hooker Ryan Guilfoyle skipped over the line to score a try and with O’Neill adding the conversion, the scores were 40-0 with 52 minutes gone. The Exiles kept plugging away and they were awarded a penalty for the Tribesmen holding down in the tackle which gave them a glimmer of hope, but yet again a knock on yielded possession. The Galwaymen needed little encouragement to seize the advantage and Aussie Nick Clark scored an opportunistic try for the 2nd week running. The Tribesmen scoring was completed by a 3rd try from Weaver and with the conversion added this put the scores at 52-0. The last 10 minutes were actually dominated by the Exiles with repeated sets near the Tribesmen line. However, the men from the West showed great tenacity to keep the Dubliners out and the game finished with an impressive 52-0 score line to the Tribesmen. The Tribesmen now move on to the next challenge still unbeaten this year, although their ranks will be depleted somewhat for the next few weeks when 6 of their squad travel to Australia to represent Ireland in the Student World Cup next month. Whilst the lads will be missed, the extended Tribesmen family wish them the best of luck in their endeavours down under.
