Remember the days when you threw a ball around the school pitch at lunch-time with improbable accuracy and speed, when you moved it from right to left, left to right, brought in the extra man and the winger dived over in the corner for a textbook try.
Blackrock lived out such schoolboy fantasies for an eye-catching and fascinating 29 minutes at Stradbrook on Saturday. Every lunchtime move worked. Every little feign, dummy and overlap pinned Lansdowne into their territory so effectively in the period just before and after half-time, that even the home support were shuffling with embarrassment and historic possibilities.
In all seven tries were run in against Lansdowne between the 28th and 57th minutes. From the 28th minute to halftime the visitors' philanthropic mood was lavishly illustrated as a try went in at a rate of one every three minutes. Nothing came in reply.
During that phase and a 17minute period when the teams came out again, the home side dodged and weaved from a narrow lead of 14-13 to an unassailable 54-13 in a passage that may well never be repeated again this season. "Every move we did worked. It was like training. Alan McGowan played the options well but we're definitely not 22 points better than them. That was a big game for us," enthused one half of the Blackrock coaching team Tony Smeeth.
The other half George Hook was equally bouyant. "We've a very strong youth policy here and we've the finest nursery in the world," he said, perhaps alluding to young Tom Keating at fullback, who had just completed his second impressive game for Blackrock, having just left school last year.
But it was right wing Paddy Dunne who gained most from Landowne's magnanimity. Having been out of the game for two years with a knee injury, Dunne thundered home for Blackrock's first, third and sixth try in their collection of eight.
Aidan Guinan on the left wing also benefitted from a team who, sensing Lansdowne's disarray, consistently looked for their wide men through scrum-half Andrew Boyd and out-half McGowan. Guinan, gleefully rising to the acres of space afforded him by the opposition, ran in two tries just two minutes apart after the break.
Even hooker Shane Byrne got in on the act to initiate the try-fest when he saw an inviting hole on the open side of a ruck and galloped through it with only a gesture of a tackle offered to stop him. McGowan and Keating also added their names to the list, each capitalising on threadbare cover with McGowan kicking all but one of the conversions for a 19-point haul.
Lansdowne did come back to register three tries through Angus McKeen, Marcus Dillon and a penalty try correctly given by Alan Lewis. But those last 10 minutes served only to add a more acceptable gloss and once or twice show up some of Blackrock's defensive frailties. "It's been a big week for us down at the club," said Grant White, the Lansdowne forward's coach. "But if you can't make tackles on the pitch you are going to let in tries. I think we showed character by coming back at them at the end."
From here on, centre Kurt McQuilkin will coach the Lansdowne backs in succession to Paul Clinch and, just as critically, plans to make his return to competitive rugby next week against Terenure.
Scoring sequence: 3 mins: R Kearns penalty, 0-3; 11: Kearns penalty, 0-6; 13: P Dunne try, A McGowan conversion, 7-6; 21: M Dillon try, Kearns conversion, 7-13; 28: S Byrne try, McGowan conversion,14-13; 32: Dunne try, McGowan conversion, 21-13; 35: McGowan try and conversion, 28-13; 40: T Keating try, McGowan conversion, 35-13; 42: Dunne try, 4013; 55: A Guinan try, McGowan conversion, 4713; 57: Guinan try, McGowan conversion, 54-13; 70: Penalty try, Kearns conversion, 54-20; 76: A McKeen try, Kearns conversion, 54-27; 79: M Dillon try, 54-32.
Blackrock College: T Keating; P Dunne, B Scally, O Cobbe, A Guinan; A McGowan, A Boyd; D Kavanagh, S Byrne, P Flavin, H Kos (capt), J Ryan, D Hackett, T Goldfinch, D Moore. Replacements: C Curneen for Cobbe (74 mins), D Casey for Goldfinch (74 mins).
Lansdowne: R Kearns; M Dillon, B Glennon, R Niland, M McNamara; R Governey, D O'Mahony; W O'Kelly, B McKoy, A McKeen, P O'Connor, S O'Connor, S Rooney, A McCullen, C McEntee. Replacement: S Cooney for McNamara (25 mins).
Referee: A Lewis (ARLB)
