“You are not defeated when you lose a battle.
You are defeated when you give up the struggle.”
– Mouloud Benzadi
“We choose to go to the moon in this decade, and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard”
– JFK
First , heartiest congratulations to St Mary’s College RFC, who are worthy AIL Champions. For me it was the best display from a non-Tarf winning team in any final I have attended.
Mary’s were superb from the 5th minute, when Tarf went 7 ahead, to the finish, matched Tarf blow for blow and in the third quarter managed to get a vital couple of scores in front, that gave them space on the scoreboard, which allowed their back line to show their true class to the finish of the game. Hats off to their coaches who had done their homework and dominated us in the air for all of the final. In particular, the work of Myles Carey in his kick-off chase was critical in pinning us deep in our own half and allowed Mary’s to respond quickly to Tarf scores. He was a worthy man of the match. He was pushed close by his mercurial no 10 Conor Dean, whose distribution, both short and long, mesmerised the Clontarf defence. It was a masterclass of passing. Any aspiring young out-half should take time out to watch this performance and learn how good passing utterly dominates a defence.