Connemara All Blacks 25 Dublin University 21Occasionally, rugby breaks out of the humdrum, reaches out and shakes people. Munster do it each year in Europe when you can see the rugby heart beating, the blood coursing through its veins. Occasionally, you can see the life attached to the game, its context, its place.
Yesterday, the Connemara All Blacks reached out and, like Munster, sold to the crowd the sense that this AIL division three final at Lansdowne Road was much more than a match. More like a redefinition of Connemara sport. Gaelic football, hurling, now rugby.
Along with Trinity they elevated this match to one that befitted its staging at rugby headquarters. And for once outside the Leinster Schools Cup final and Six Nations matches the crowd could be heard, a few thousand packed into the lower west stand on a cold, breezy afternoon.
A mix of families and neighbours, a rugby team constructed around half of the Clifden intermediate gaelic football team and fullback Henry O'Toole, now approaching 40, lording over the game.
Both sides' cheery resolution to run the ball set the tone and pace from the outset, Trinity getting over after just six minutes with a back flick from scrumhalf Colm Curneen sending lock Alan Maher over for 5-0 as the students fizzed and sparkled for a 15 minute opening spell.
A couple of kicks from Trinity's David Johnston and Henry O'Toole had the teams at 8-3 before Connemara number eight Gerard Burke streaked through and earned a penalty on the right side of the goal. Sensing mild panic, a quickly taken tap penalty whisked the ball left, centre Mark Foyle finally delivering to left wing Pat O'Toole to wriggle over. Safely converted, the lead changed to Connemara before Trinity stung back, John Quigley showing good hands and balance as the students recycled a lineout drive on the right and stretched Connemara on the other side of the pitch for 15-10.
That was how the game continued, at high tempo and little more than a score between the two sides. Trinity number eight Roger Wilson manfully made the hard yards and showed considerable mobility, while lock Kevin Keogh, one of three brothers on the Connemara side, moved like a winger, his pace finding space where there should have been none up a left channel. That lone raid, just after the break, was rewarded with an equalising try for 15-15.
Johnston, finding his range with the boot, which he did with increasing regularity as the game progressed, again put the students' noses in front before Connemara raised the intensity even higher, their vocal support playing out every break, crash tackle and kick with the team.
Just after the hour flanker Noel Walsh took the notion to fracture Trinity's defence. With Henry O'Toole at his side, Walsh battered well inside the Trinity 22 and O'Toole gracefully followed up to slice through, his pace obviously still intact.
But again Johnston kicked Trinity into the lead, for 21-20, this time from 35 yards out and using the swirling cross-pitch wind to good effect. Even then with just 10 minutes remaining both sides continued to keep the ball in hand. There was little contemplation of draining the life from the game with raking kicks or killing tactics. And maybe neither team could play that way anyway but the result was a match always hanging in the balance.
Ultimately the breaks went with Connemara on 75 minutes, with Alan Keogh touching down on the right after his side had stretched Trinity on the other side of the pitch, a skip pass finally landing in Keogh's hands and little other than 15 yards of green grass in front of him.
With Connemara leading 25-21, the crowd were already gathering on the perimeter fencing - and we would witness mothers scaling chest-high barriers with a handbag in one hand and a flag in the other to hug their sons.
Typically, the match ended with Trinity desperately and courageously battering away in the All Black 22. But the student race was run. Connemara, with an eye on the trophy, robustly stood their ground, an IRFU bauble now on a rare journey out The Sky Road.
Scoring sequence: 6 mins - A Maher try 0-5; 15 - H O'Toole pen 3-5; 33 - D Johnston pen 3-8; 37 - P O'Toole try, H O'Toole con 10-8; 40 - J Quigley try, Johnston con 10-15. Half-time. 46 - K Keogh try 15-15; 55 - Johnston pen 15-18; 64 - H O'Toole try 20-18; 68 - Johnston pen 20-21; 75 - A Keogh try 25-21.
CONNEMARA: H O'Toole; A Keogh, M Foyle, P O Neil, P O'Toole; F O'Rourke, D Keogh; F Wood, T King, G King, F Madden, K Keogh, N Walsh, B Keaney (capt), G Burke. Replacements: C Joyce for G King (58 mins), M Walsh for P O'Neil.
DUBLIN UNIVERSITY: A Howell; A Jackson, S Kelly, J Quigley, D Johnston; D Crotty (capt), C Curneen; C Sheehy, K Murphy, S Brophy, A Maher, P Raftery, S St George, H Hogan, R Wilson. Replacements: D Greer for Howell (half-time), P Lennon for St George.
Referee: S McDowell.
