UBL Round 5
Bruff returned to Ulsterbank League action on Saturday with a home game vs 7th placed Seapoint. Bruff suffered 2 defeats to the Dubliners last season and knew they needed to be on top form to come out of the game with anything. Bruff were on the back of a 39.10 victory over Tullamore while Seapoint were also on the back of a good 25-15 win over Dublin Rivals Malahide.
Bruff started well and enjoyed a lot of early territory and possession, but it was Seapoint who took the lead after 14 minutes with a drop goal with their first visit to the Bruff 22. Seapoint were unlucky not to go further ahead after 20 minutes when they won a penalty at the scrum with the resulting kick coming off the Bruff post which allowed Bruff to clear to safety. In-fact Seapoint hit the post twice in the game which was to prove beneficial to Bruff at the end. Bruff went into the lead after 25 minutes when full back Brian Fanning linked with scrum half Tony Cahill at a Bruff scrum to go over in the corner. It was an impressive score followed by an even more impressive conversion which David O Grady slotted from the touch line to make it 7-3 to Bruff. O Grady added a penalty after 37 minutes after a dominant scrum was rewarded for applying pressure on the Seapoint front five. Bruff took that 10-3 lead into the Break and I’m sure that the half time team talk couldn’t have prepared them for what was to come in the second half.
What did come in the second half was 40 minutes of relentless attack from the south Dublin side. Bruff just could not get their hands on the ball in the second half for any substantial period of time and when they did they gave it back too easily which could have cost them the game. Fortunately for Bruff, Seapoint only managed to create 1 score in the second half which was an unconverted try after 65 minutes. This was probably the only time the Bruff defence failed getting out flanked down the left hand side. Up to and after that the Bruff tackling and defensive lines were immense showing massive character and attitude to hold out for the 10.8 win which moves them into second in the table 3 points behind leaders Sligo and just a single point ahead of Thomond.
The fixtures don’t get any easier and next up is a trip to Bangor this weekend.
Bruff Team: 15 Brian Fanning 14 Cian Ryan 13 Conor Fitzpatrick 12 Jack O Grady 11 Mark Cosgrove 10 David O Grady 9 Tony Cahill 8 Ordhan Ring 7 John Clery 6 Liam O Dwyer 5 Sean Hartigan 4 Neilus Keogh 3 Keith Laffan 2 John Hogan 1 David Horan 16 Brendan Keogh 17 Brian Morrissey 18 Mahnus Collins 19 Sean Darcy 20 Cian Clifford