Lincoln Park RFC D2 47 SS Irish 31

Sixteen points, in the end, is a margin that suggests a fairly comfortable afternoon for Lincoln Park. The truth of this one was rather different, and rather better for the neutral — a genuine arm-wrestle for long periods before Park finally cut loose, only for two late Irish tries, the second with the very last play of the game, to put a gloss on the scoreline that the balance of the contest did not really support.

A first half of fine margins

The opening forty was as too-and-fro as this fixture has produced, with Park striking first when Finnegan followed up good work from Thomas to touch down. Thomas was a constant menace throughout, his jinking running repeatedly leaving Irish defenders grasping at shadows, and he combined well all afternoon with Jahner attacking off the back of scrums down the weak side.

Jahner's own game was built as much around the base of the scrum as anything else, regularly picking and driving off a dominant Park platform to get his side over the gain line and playing with real front-foot momentum. His kicking, too, kept the scoreboard moving in Park's favour — only one miss from the tee in the entire match. Behind him, Chrisos once again pulled the strings from fly-half with a tactically astute kicking game that gave Park control of territory whenever they needed it.

Irish were not to be shaken off easily, however, and responded with two tries of their own in the first half to keep the contest firmly alive heading into the interval — Thomas and Jahner having both crossed for Park by that point, though Jahner's score, coming from a five-metre pushover, might just as fairly have been credited to the pack as a collective effort as to any one man.

Centres provide the cutting edge

If the forwards laid the platform, it was in the midfield that Park's backline really caught the eye. Cooley was the blunt instrument, running hard and direct through would-be tacklers, while inside him Lepp offered altogether more rapier-like running lines, repeatedly setting up support runners with the kind of timing that unlocks a defence rather than simply testing it. Both were equally excellent without the ball, doing their share of the defensive work as well.

And defensive work there was plenty of, right across the Park side. Tackles were made with real intent throughout, Robinson and Laux particularly prominent in that department, while even Hudson at scrumhalf was sharp enough to snuff out Irish half-breaks whenever the smallest of gaps opened up.

A devastating second-half spell

Whatever the arm-wrestle of the first half suggested about the shape of this contest, the second told a very different story. In one ferocious ten-minute spell, Park simply blew the game apart. Suladze crossed twice in that period, with Cooley and Leyman both adding further tries of their own, turning a tight contest into what looked, for a spell, like a rout in the making.

It was only in the last two minutes, with the outcome long since settled, that Irish found a way back into the scoreline, adding two further tries of their own — the second coming with the very last play of the match. It brought the score closer, but it was a deficit from which Irish had never looked likely to recover, and the result itself was never truly in doubt.

The verdict

A scoreline that flattered the visitors rather more than the contest itself did, this was nonetheless another encouraging afternoon's work for Park — a first half of genuine competition followed by a second-half spell of real quality that showed exactly what this side is capable of when the game opens up in front of them. Look at the personnel and this is a Park team not too far removed from the one that turned out last year. What has changed is the confidence with which they are now playing.