Saturday’s two wins in Coolmine were sweet …..real sweet. To fully appreciate sweetness, it helps to have some sourness in the memory bank . We brought a bucket full of sourness up the road with us,  having come away from  our last three Firsts games with a big fat 0 and the  memory of the accompanying  knowing looks afterwards .  The evening kick offs meant playing under lights which is no bother to the little black and yellow lads. The Seconds kicked off, just as dusk began to fall, the soft drizzle looked as if it would stay  soft,  so Noel left his umbrella in the boot.
Our Seconds had to field minus our talisman Barry McCann who was on the sideline but Neil Hogan-the silent assassin, is a fair man to have stepping in. Within 2 minutes of the kick off,  their left winger streaked 50m to score in the corner and the battle lines were drawn, it was dog eat dog stuff from there to the finish. Within 5 minutes Mackie’s penalty had it pegged back to two points at 3-5. By the way  Mackie studies  his  rugby at the ROG academy for outhalves,  and worked as an apprentice in a shirt factory in a former life ……  All this is by way of explaining how Coolmine were pinned back inside their own 22 all night ……. Last year they walked away with the League….. they are still mean and intense but Karl Darragh was in the groove – the best zig zag man in the business, also he kicks like a jennet and tackles big f*****s with huge ‘stoppedness’. He was on fire,  and had to be,  as they asked us serious questions , Liam, Jennings  and Austin C  are formidable men at this level and have no bother answering serious questions all night long ……. they asked some serious questions themselves especially 5 minutes into the second half when  Daryl O Hora planted the ball over their line to score our only try from a 15m maul. Ten minutes later KD kicked a magnificent penalty from half way to give us a 13-3 lead. Coolmine stormed back to for their other winger to score a good try….. but that was as near as they got as we went on the offensive thereafter,  and were unfortunate not to score another try  following brilliant work from the afore mentioned Mr Darragh and a determined chase from a very focused Niall O Connor .
                    In ancient times,  armies saved themselves a lot of bother,  by sending forth their champions to fight to the death, with the spoils going to the army whose man was alive at the end.  Coolmine’s Firsts champion was their Kicker- let us call this man……Coyote. Ours was Roadrunner Extraordinaire aka Davy Hogan who went beep beep  as he raced through their defence twice in the last 10 minutes  to score the two tries that brought the bacon down the motorway!  Unlike back in ‘ancientia’, here the two teams gave everything they had in as intense a match in its own way, as was played in Auckland ten hours before hand. Coolmine are good at the basics especially at defence. In the first half, we had all the possession and territory. They visited our half of the pitch only three times in the first forty minutes, each time engineering a penalty and each time their kicker punished us . Halftime Coolmine 9 Newbridge 0 .
                         The pressure was cranked up as the second half ticked along, but still we could not breech their magnificent defence…… Things  did not look good when Ben was binned for a late tackle and now we were under the cosh. At this stage Ken Bracken was on for Rory and his energy seemed to grow us, as cometh the hour,cometh the beep beep man……. He received the ball 40m out on the right wing ,beat his man on the outside but looking up there were three more galugas between him and their line…… he cut an arc on  their inside leaving two of them grasping at his slip stream and then zigged outside to befuddle the full back before touching down near the posts…. Harry who I thought had a good game kicked true , now we it was 9-7 with ten minutes to go. Ben came back and it was game on….. attack after attack for five ‘full on’ minutes but no way through as they played in our faces ……. Ball to Ben who grubber kicked it towards the dead ball corner from twenty metres out …… Beep Beep swept  onto  it  like a jet engine making an emergency landing ……. His touchdown was but millimetres ahead of their distraught full back. 12- 9 to the black and yellow boys with five minutes left to play.
                 Particular heroes up to this point in my estimation were Brian Fury who had come on for Terry Donnelly who is one hardy man who had given his all, and Cillian OShea who would tackle a bull on the run. At this point Coolmine forsook their game plan and came at us like a ravenous Tyrannosaurus  Rex gunning for a vestal virgin  on a sultry night! …… Phase after cold furious phase they inched nearer our line…… at one point I thought they were in- but they weren’t ……quite how we kept them out I don’t know -Abba  performed some sort of magic trick of his to do with ferocious strength and the cunning of an old dog. Our fellahs were slapping his back goodo when that long beautiful whistle sounded as the drizzle cooled us all, under the golden lights in the furnace that is  Ashbrook, home of the defeated Coolmine Rfc.
Ps . So Wales are back in Wales, while Les Bleus prepare to do to the All Blacks what only Les Bleus can do. The great unwashed think Warbuton should  merely have been given  a yellow from Alain but the truth is they lost because they hadn’t  got the depth and their kickers were atrocious. Allez les Bleus Allez!
Ps Eile . I am looking forward to visiting  my Alma Mater in the UCD bowl next Saturday 3 pm to support our Third XV in a League match and battle for the Forrester Cup. UCD are undefeated to date as, I think are our Thirds.  A chap called Enda rang to tell me there would be finger food in the bar afterwards at the Presentation and that we were all invited. Fred will be in Auckland, filing  his final copy of the best RWC dispatch I have been reading.