Galwegians 13
Clontarf 25
Visitors Clontarf moved into the top four of the AIB League division one after a comfortable victory over a lacklustre Galwegians on Saturday.
In a poor game of rugby in which neither side looked like capable of competing for division honours, it was the visitors who had the advantage in their backline, sufficient to take full points.
Galwegians were deserving of a bonus point, but despite a late rally, they could not make it over the line as they recorded their fifth defeat from 10 outings.
The home side enjoyed the strong breeze in the opening half, and despite the odd touchfinder, they failed to make use of the elements. Two penalties from fullback Rob O’Beirn was their total for the half in which Clontarf winger, Galway native Niall O’Brien touched down for the first of his hat-trick of tries after 20 minutes to give his side a 7-6 half-time lead.
Galwegians may have entertained high hopes of keeping ball in hand against the wind in the second half, but they failed to win sufficient first-phase possession. Instead Clontarf wrested control with two early Daragh O’Shea penalties, stretching their lead to seven points.
O’Brien scored his second try after an intercept, and bagged his third close on full time.
Galwegians did get in for an injury-time try when wingerJohn Cleary broke from inside his own half on the counter-attack, but it made little impact to the final result.
Galwegians: R O'Beirn (sub: B Murphy, 45 ); J Cleary, C Brigl, C Rodgers, B Lee; C O’Beirne, T Ellard (sub: R. Shaughnessy, 79 ); L Casserly, I Muldoon (capt. ), D Boyd (sub: J Moran, 53 ); L Scahill, D Nolan; J Stephens, C Muldoon (A O’Sullivan, 53 ), J Lyne (sub: J Naughten 71 )
Clontarf:M Dufficy; P Howard (sub: M Rantz-McDonald, 60 ) , D O’Shea (capt. ), B O’Donnell, N O’Brien; P O’Brien, S Tracey; M Garvey, N Carson, H Stride; S Crawford (sub: K Dorrian, 77 ), B Reilly; N Treston; A Dundon, A Clarke (YC, 73 ).
Referee: A Lewis
