UL/Bohs win but fail to impress

THE result apart, there was little for UL/Bohemian supporters or players to celebrate after Saturday’s 16-8 victory over UCD in the first series of AIB League games at the University of Limerick.

Given the excitement of the first rugby match to be played on the superb UL Bowl, and the high expectations of the host club to go a step further than last year’s semi-final, this was a bitterly disappointing game.

UL/Bohs director of rugby Ian Costelloe went so far as to describe the rugby in the first hour as terrible.

“We played some decent rugby in the final 20 minutes or so that made up, in some way, for what we had seen up to then,” said Costelloe. “We put some decent phases together but overall there was no intensity and we were very flat. We had a new venue, we put a lot of work into getting everything ready and we had a decent-enough crowd so it was very disappointing.”

Though UL/Bohs coped well against the wind and rather limited opposition, they had to rely on a penalty by out-half Fergal Lawlor for their first-half points. UCD drew level approaching the interval when UL/Bohs flanker Tommy O’Donnell was yellow carded for a late tackle. Killian Lett knocked over the penalty.

The game’s first try arrived on 54 minutes when a reverse pass by scrum half Chris Delooze found winger Lupini Siale who broke through. Lawlor converted and UL/Bohs were relatively safe at 13-3 when he notched a penalty shortly afterwards.

Andy Cummiskey added a try in the corner but by then Lawlor had brought his tally to 11 with a drop-goal.

UL/BOHEMIAN: E. Torrie; M. McPhail, B. Murphy, C. Finn, L. Siale; F. Lawlor, C. Delooze; K. Flanagan, F. Leonard, M. Storey, B. Madigan, A. Hartigan, T. O’Donnell, J.E. O’Connor, J. O’Neill.

Replacements: A. O’Gorman for O’Neill; S. Henry for Leonard.

UCD: M. Twomey; C. Aherne, A. Cummiskey, K. Lett, V. Artemiev; M. Hastings, R. Shanley; J. Lee, C. Geoghegan, K. Doyle, B. Cawley, D. Phiskie, K. Croke, S. O’Brien, M. Nagle.

Replacements: C. Mitchell for Doyle; C. Doyle for O’Brien; J. Moroney for Shanley.

Referee: S. McDowell (Ulster).