AIL Rnd 13 :Bruff 19 Bective Rangers 17

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What A Day, What a Day is right.
At the moment we are looking at making a planning application for an air traffic control tower to be placed on the Hill in Knockainy to facilitate the number of helicopters landing on the training pitch.

Before the pre-match had commenced we had the first drop and take-off which included the President from Bective Rangers. Then during the meal, we were contacted to check had the first one left before the arrival of Chopper Number two, for it’s drop and lift-off. An hour after the game finished Helicopter one land again to bring home their load who despite being on the wrong side of the scoreline, were in particularly good humour prior to loading even if one of them had a plastic bag with him (in case of air-sickness, naturally) 🙂 .

The game started at a blinding pace, Bruff attacking the Bective line with nothing short of an onslaught at a pace that eventually told when Thirteen minutes in No. 8 Mike Carroll crossed following a brilliant piece of interplay between Brian Cahill and the backline. Cahill converting gave Bruff a seven to Nil lead. On 19 mins Bective outhalf Cormac O’ Beirne missed an opportunity to give them a bit of a claw back when he pushed his penalty wide of the posts. Bruff came into the ascendancy again and despite a worrying penalty count against them at the breakdown, attacked the Bective line again and again until winger Andrew Cashman finished off a lovely back-line move to cross over in the right hand corner before bringing the ball halfway to the posts, making the conversion By Captain Cahill a lot more straightforward. 14-0 to Bruff. Bective didn’t drop their heads of course and despite spurning one opportunity for a kick at goal, opting for the corner instead, they managed to come away from the half with a single O’ Beirne penalty deep into injury to make the halftime score 14 points to 3.

Two minutes into the second half Bective clawed back a few points when their full back broke and crossed the whitewash. O’ Beirne converting this one to bring them back to within 4 points of the leaders. Four minutes later however Bruff winger Nigel Riordan emerged with the ball from the back of a Bective maul which was being pushed across the touchline, and despite the touch judges flag being raised the referee was close enough to watch Riordan drive under the Bective defence to be awarded the touchdown in the middle of the melee which formed at the left hand corner. This time the kick was too far left and Bruff’s scorline was held at 19 points.
That’s where it was to stay for Bruff, despite attack after attack and penalty after penalty relieving the pressure on the Bective line. Bective didn’t look really like scoring at any stage despite their staunch defence but the penalty count against Bruff became extremely worrying (somewhere in the region of 23 against Bruff to 5 against Bective, nearly all at the breakdown). With eight minutes left on the clock, The Bective No. 8 John Byrne stole a try with a breakaway from between his ten meter and twenty two and scampering the remainder to touch down under the posts. All of a sudden it was game on again. 19 points to 17. Bective had had a try disallowed, but finally Bruff fought back to grind out the game burning out the time with phase after phase of ruck ball “á lá Munster” whenever they got their hands on it, and managing to keep Bective out of penalty or drop goal range when defending before eventually turning over a Bective ball to lift the siege and allow the final whistle.
While we anxiously awaited the other results to come through, finally news of DLSP’s loss and Terenures bonus point win eventually filtered through. This means that to be mathematically clear for promotion, we need 4 league points from our last two games against Malone next saturday and Clonakilty on the day of the 1/4 Final. Today leaves Bruff guaranteed a top four playoff place and with a good shot at promotion. Despite two fine tough games to finish the regular season, at least it’s still all in our own hands.