Bectives's efforts prove to be in vain

THE LOUDEST cheer heard at Donnybrook on Saturday came from Anglesea Road, just down the road

THE LOUDEST cheer heard at Donnybrook on Saturday came from Anglesea Road, just down the road. It told the story of the survival of Old Belvedere in the Division One of the All-Ireland League and drowned out the cries of despair of once proud Bective Rangers, who, regardless of this convincing win, were confirmed as remaining in the second division.

There is a huge gap in standards between the haves and the have nots of Irish club rugby.

This was illustrated clearly by the failure of players of the undoubted calibre of Fintan Cunningham and Des Jackson to lift the Bective effort above the mediocre. Cunningham's line kicking was awry, to say the least.

On a day when the pitch was hard and the ball dry neither side could manage the kind of fluency of handling which ought to have come naturally. To the great credit of UCC, who were short several first-choice players, they tried valiantly to drive Bective back. Several penalty opportunities were shunned with a view to getting the use of the quick kick, but these came to naught and by half-time Bective were 18 points to nil ahead and virtually out of sight.

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By the middle of the second half the scores elsewhere became of much greater importance than the events on the pitch and this seemed to pervade the attitude of players as they fussed and fumbled their way to an academic conclusion.

Ben Kealy's earlier penalty, followed by an unconverted try, put Bective in control of the match within the first quarter of an hour. Bective's back row of Trevor Brennan, Stephen Montgomery and Philip Kenny easily contained UCC's attempts to break through. When Ian Dwyer dashed over for an uncoverted try to take the score to 23-0, the match was out of sight as far as UCC was concerned.

They did manage to get five points on the board in the 70th minute when their winger, Paul Barry drifted past less-than-convincing Bective defence to touch down wide on the right.

However, full back Craig Whelan and substitute Seamus Farrelly added tries for Bective.