Dolphin’s surge too late

Dolphin 15 Clontarf 21

Instead, the Cork side dropped to fourth and their only real source of consolation came in the closing minutes when they snatched a seven-pointer to rescue a losing bonus point.

Head coach Steve Ford didn’t attempt to hide his disappointment in the aftermath: “We didn’t get into the game for 60 minutes or so, we won enough possession but couldn’t keep the ball for long enough. It cost us, it took us too long to get into the game and then we were chasing points.

“We had chances in the second half and didn’t get them and that allowed them stay in control. You don’t want to be trying to win games five minutes into injury time, which is what happened.

“They got two tries quickly. There was nothing in it for almost 30 minutes and then in a couple of blinks they were 14 points in front. We worked hard, our set-piece was good but I’m really disappointed. We finished strongly but there is much more in us than we showed.

“The bonus point was something, I suppose, but it’s not much of a consolation; bonus points in defeat don’t mean much to me. While Clontarf are a good team and played on the front foot, I’m still really disappointed with this.”

The opening exchanges produced plenty of endeavour but little in the way of opportunity, save for a missed penalty nine minutes in by Barry Keeshan.

Clontarf, however, had looked more threatening with ball in hand and they produced a marvellous opening try from winger Michael McGrath who came inside David Joyce at speed to crash over near the posts, the out-half converting.

Max McFarland’s enterprise was rewarded shortly afterwards. The left-winger created the space to break through the middle and after the move briefly broke down he was on hand to take a scoring pass on the right wing to dot down near the corner. Joyce again converted and Dolphin’s sole response was a 35th-minute penalty from Keeshan.

With the wind at their backs, Dolphin enjoyed the better of the exchanges early in the second half and Cian Bohane’s 48th-minute try put them right back in the hunt. Disappointingly for Ford and the home supporters they were unable to build on that.

Instead, Clontarf upped the pace and they got a third try midway through the period from Colm O’Shea, with David Joyce converting for a 21-8 lead. The visitors controlled much of the remainder of the game before Dolphin struck late for a John Gleeson try that Keeshan converted for some consolation.

DOLPHIN: R Scannell, D Sweetnam, E Moloney, C Bohane, J Gleeson, B Keeshan, K O’Keeffe, P Ryan, N Scannell, C Condon, R O’Herlihy, D O Se, M Cronin, R Murphy, J Fitzgerald.

Rolling replacements: W Foley, B Scott, S Hansel, C Rowe, E O’Shaughnessy.

CLONTARF: D Fitzpatrick, M McGrath, K Lett, E Ryan, M McFarland, D Joyce, S Cronin, I Hirst, C Culleton, T Furlong, B Reilly, E Browne, M Kearney, K Moran, T Ryan.

Rolling replacements: S Crawford, K Donoghue, B Byrne, C O’Shea, R Dillon.

Referee: S Gallagher (IRFU).