Barnhall Butchers Grab Attention of Worldwide Media

February 17, 2015 12:00 am client

The Barnhall Butchers’ game against Clondalkin RFC became the subject of huge international media interest this week, but it wasn’t the result that mattered to the rest of the world.

NUIM Barnhall RFC Butchers put themselves in pole position for the Metro Division 8 title with a hard-fought 17-7 win over near neighbours Clondalkin on Saturday. Tries from Matt Schofield, Dave O’Mara and Captain James Browne, with his second in as many weeks, were enough to come away with victory.

The Butchers’ game is recorded every week by their video analyst, John O’Brien. The purpose of this is to show problems on the pitch to the players; to help them improve their all round game. It was from this footage that John spotted a moment that he had to share with the rest of The Butchers’ squad and then the world.

On Tuesday, Fox Sports in Australia ran a report on the Australian version of Sky Sports News of the moment in which John recorded Butchers’ winger Gavin Woods gathering the ball from an inside pass from Welshman Luke Ingleton. What happened next is what gathered the media interest.

Woods held the ball tight as the Clondalkin centre came to tackle him, he dipped his head, and proceeded to lift the surprised man in yellow on to his shoulder. Woods then ran with him for a good 10 metres, still with ball in hand. He then placed the Clondalkin man down and a ruck was created to give The Butchers clean ball. The game carried on, but everyone watching knew that what they had seen was very special.

British and Irish Lions winger George North did something similar in a test match 18 months ago against Australia. He picked Rugby League/Aussie Rules convert, Israel Folau onto his shoulder in exactly the same way as Woods. That moment will go down in Lions history, but North only managed 3-4 metres with the prone Folou on his shoulder. The Journal, Balls.ie and Joe.ie all called Woods’ effort “Herculean”.

The game at the time was being dominated in the early exchanges by Clondalkin, but after this moment a new step came into The Butchers stride. Matt Schofield, an early sub for fellow back row Ciaran Moloney, waltzed through the Clondalkin back line on 30 minutes, finally breaking the deadlock. Gavin Delaney sent over the conversion from near the side-line.

The domination from The Butchers demanded more points and just before half-time, a five metre line-out-turned-maul rumbled over the line with captain James Browne coming up with the ball to make it 12-0 at half-time.

The second half was an attritional affair. Ciaran’s identical twin, Conor Moloney, had to go off with an elbow injury. The Butchers until that point had not been without one of the twins in any minute of a game this season. Their absence was clearly felt however in the second half, with Clondalkin gaining easy yards around rucks. The second half was won 7-5 by Clondalkin, but there was a sense that the NUIM Barnhall RFC team were never in any major trouble.

The final score in Clondalkin saw the Butchers win it 17-7, outscoring their opponents three tries to one.

NUIM Barnhall

15. Jonathan Carberry
14. Dave O’Mara
13. Luke Ingleton
12. Gavin Delaney
11. Gavin Woods
10. Ciaran Oman
9. Sean O’Connell
1. Jack Looby
2. James Browne
3. Paul Morrissy
4. Ray Tyndall
5. Luke Farrell
6. Conor Moloney
7. Ciaran Moloney
8. Dave Walsh

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