Our plucky First Years jiggled and jived the short way down to the Aviva Stadium for their first rugby blitz of the season but when they arrived they were shocked to see veritable behemoths lurking in the shadows of the stylish corporate edifice!   We do not know what they are feeding them at Marian, Sanford and New Park but maybe Chef Mark’s menu is too cosmopolitan and we need to revert to serving up pounds of horseflesh!  Victory, however, does not always go to the biggest and our boys certainly claimed the moral laurels as they battled with spirit and style and earned just praise from Coaches O’Brien and Sweeney.  Even our unshaven opponents admitted some grudging respect… before getting into their cars and driving themselves home!  Meanwhile, Mr. Magee’s JCT got back to winning ways, vanquishing Gonzaga, 24-14.  For some reason, beating a Jesuit school always feels just a bit more special!  And we knew the SCT, sponsored by Ballsbridge Motors,  was going to find it tough this year after last season’s glorious exploits: the defending champs always have a bullseye on their jerseys.  But despite the fact that everyone is gunning for them, and the fact that Coach Maguire’s team has suffered several key injuries, the SCT started their 1st ever Division 1B league campaign with a draw and were very unlucky to get the win.  After going 15 – 3 down the lads got themselves together and scored two tries.  For a team to loose 17 players and move up to a higher league and get a draw is a massive achievement for a very young team. There is a long way to go yet but what a start! Luke McKay, Colin ‘Doughty’ Duffy,  Jamie  Lawless and Hugh ‘Huge’ Downes all made massive contributions and Captain Ross Murphy, of course, was as calm, cool and collected as ever!

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