Old Belvedere Match Report - AIL Final
We are the Champions!!!
Old Belvedere 20 Cork Constitution 17
The world is in a state of chassis! Its one of the rare old times in Dublin this May holiday weekend with Leinster dethroning the European champions Toulouse, the Dubs beating Kilkenny in a hurling final by 12 points and Old Belvedere becoming only the second Leinster side to win the All Ireland League trophy. Heady days indeed. Forget the Forties – this was undoubtedly the biggest day in the club’s history and the win was embellished with some stylish play, brave substitutions and the bit of luck that is always necessary to win at the highest level. The carnival atmosphere in the club grounds in the evening sunshine prevailed long into the early hours with the match being replayed several times on TV. Players, Committee Members and supporters basked in the quiet satisfaction of beating the trophy holders and finally achieving a long sought goal of being top club in Ireland.
We recall that when an All Ireland League was first mooted in the late eighties, five divisions were proposed with entry to each division dependent on recent past performance. Wanderers and Ballymena were 1st Division certainties. Old Belvedere was destined for Division 5. How times have changed. When the league was finally launched with two divisions, we were not there. Morgan Sheehy, our first Chairman of the Management Committee, was invited to produce a strategic plan for presentation to members on how we might become a 1st Division club. The dream finally became a reality yesterday. Let us recall some of the highlights of our climb to the top on this great day in the club’s history - Mervyn Feely and Donal Spring taking us out of Division 2 in 1995, Bruce Deans and John Connolly trying to keep us in Division 1 unsuccessfully, President Mark Feely and Captain Scott Hutton providing the drive and impetus to regain premier status in 2007, David Hargaden and Damien Thorsney keeping the momentum going by winning League 1B in 2010 and finally the holy grail for Andy Dunne and our modest coach, Phil Werahiko who will enjoy his day in the sun having given splendid service to Irish rugby in a number of other Senior and Junior clubs and in Belvedere College. It’s a great day also for the side-line mentors who have been ever present with the various teams over a long number of years - Gerry Cruise, Owen Deering, Aidan Collins and Brian Gallagher and for Matt Kennedy, our vociferous assistant coach and our Physio, James Allen.. Congratulations to John Mahony who in his wife’s wildest dreams did finally end up as President of the All Ireland Champions.
The pre-match lunch catered for 275 people and included the great and good of the IRFU and a strong contingent from Cork as well as from Old Belvedere. IRFU President, Caleb Powell presented the IRFU trophies to divisional league winners, Cork Constitution, Clontarf, Ballinahinch and City of Derry. Cork Con President Der O’Riordan , in his speech, spoke of his pride at the number of players in his side that had progressed through the club from the Under 6 side. A wag after the match opined that perhaps they were slow learners! John Mahony claimed that he had so many calls from Cork during the week that he was dreaming in a Cork accent. It was all good banter before taking the short walk up to Donnybrook for the final game of the season.
Belvo kicked off and started brightly, gaining a penalty at the first scrum and a chance to kick an early penalty goal was missed. That was soon forgotten when a sublime passing movement was originated with a lovely floating pass from Andy Dunne to John Kennedy who ran into open space in the outside channel, passed to Danny Riordan who timed his pass perfectly to David Mongan who touched down in the corner. Andy kicked a great conversion from far out and it was 7-0 to Belvo after 8 minutes. The restart was magnificently claimed in the air by Richie Leyden but referee Dudley Philips ruled obstruction and Gerry Hurley converted the penalty goal for 7-3. Con were awarded another penalty at a scrum just at the start of the 2nd quarter, which they converted for 7-6. Ben Woods, who was having a stormer of a game in the centre had to go off for a head injury after 27 minutes and was replaced by Chris Keane before resuming his place just before half-time. In the meantime, Stuart Maguire was harshly yellow carded for not rolling away after receiving a gash on the head as a result of an accidental clash of heads with Con hooker Denis Fogarty. Just on half-time, the Belvo back row was caught off-side and Con kicked a third penalty to lead at the break by 9-7. The feeling among supporters at the break was that is was a good result for Belvo as we had been outgunned in the scrum and line-out in the first half but the defensive effort was immense as Belvo successfully thwarted a number of hard drives by a Con side intent on wearing down the Belvo pack and starving our backs of possession.
One wondered if the effort of keeping Con out would extract a toll on the Belvo players and perhaps the honed skills and fitness levels of the Munster contracted players would be a telling difference in the second half.
The half-time talk in the Belvo dressing room must have been inspiring as the team came out with renewed vigour, concentration and determination and played 40 minutes of rugby that inspired our supporters and produced a magnificent team effort worthy of winning any trophy. The restart was well handled with a fine kick up the touch line by Danny Riordan. There followed another sublime back passing movement with Ben Young swatting away an attempted tackle by Con out-half Deasy, putting John Kennedy into space who timed a good pass to Eddie Devitt who in turn fed Danny Riordan running at an angle. He looked certain to score but was hauled down inches from the line by a superb tackle by Simon Zebo. However, John Kennedy followed up quickly and grabbed the ball from Riordan and dived over under a mound of bodies. The conversion missed in a swirling wind and we were 12-9 in front. Con were a bit unnerved by this turn of events and the restart did not go 10 metres. Four minutes later, we had a further chance of a penalty kick at goal which was unsuccessful. The only glitch in a fine second-half performance came as a result of two aimless kicks in succession up the middle after 55 minutes which allowed Cork Con to mount a series of attacks across the Belvo line and the pressure finally told as full back, Sean Scanlon scored a try wide out which was not converted but left the Cork side leading 14-12.
With 20 minutes to go, Chris Keane, Conal Keane and Kevin Buckley came on for Simon Keogh, Andy Dunne and David Gilchrist respectively. D. Moore followed a few minutes later for Marshall. Conal Keane had an early opportunity to kick a penalty goal right from a spot he had been practicing at half-time and duly obliged with three points to put us back in front by 15-14. Stewart Maguire made an inspiring dash up-field in the same channel as Cian Healy had done the day before for Leinster but the prop ran so fast nobody could get near him as he was felled in the tackle. David Mongan followed this with a good run and kick up the left touchline and Belvo were playing really good rugby at this stage. With 10 minutes to go, Danny Riordan fielded a ball on the 22 with one foot inside and cleared directly to touch after juggling the ball. Richie Leyden superbly tapped the ball down from the ensuing lineout and John Kennedy weaved his way through the Con defence and ran in from the 22 to get a superb try and win the accolade of Man of the Match. The conversion hit the upright and bounced out. 20-14 up and seven minutes to go.
The short-side restart by Con was fielded by Belvo but driven back at pace and Belvo were immediately penalised for not releasing the ball. Hurley duly kicked the penalty. With three minutes to go, Con were awarded a penalty almost in front of the posts for falling over the emerging ball. To the immense relief of Belvedere supporters, Hurley somehow managed to pull the kick left of the posts, having kicked superbly all day. Now, it was all about retaining possession for the final two minutes plus injury. Belvo managed to claim the 22 out and knuckled down to the task with a seemingly unending series of pick and drive, finishing with the award of a scrum to Belvo. He ball was eventually cleared up field and Belvo were awarded a final penalty on the stroke of time. Rather than risking the penalty kick might hit a post and come back into play and mindful of what happened to Leinster the day before, the penalty attempt was kicked wide and beyond the dead ball line and it was game won.
Richie Leyden goes into our history book as the first Old Belvedere player to win two All Ireland Medals – he was a member of the J2 side that won the All Ireland cup in 2003, beating Garryowen in the final. He claims he also has an under 12 All Ireland medal – for what we are not quite sure.
Congratulations to all the team and the mentors for a magnificent collective effort and for believing in yourselves. It was a great victory for club rugby and club players and the committee will need to put some thought into how we can harness the benefit of winning into tangible benefits for Old Belvedere in the future.
I will finish by recalling the words of a former President of Old Belvedere, Finbarr O’Mahony (1978/79) who memorably recalled the great years of Old Belvedere in the forties in verse:
The velvet grass they trod on seemed all hallowed,
The Gods, it seemed, forever blessed their play,
Their thoughts were not of lean grey years to follow,
They changed a great to-morrow into a great to-day.
Cruiser – we need another chapter in the Book of Old Belvedites to celebrate the occasion.
Niall Pelly
Posted on 03 May 2011.
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