Shaking Shaking off the jet-lag of the following day’s travels and tribulations the SDSS Devils team arrived at the stunning Malahide Rugby Club and took to the field against the experienced local U-18 club team. The Devils were pumped. Straight from the kick-off the team ran hard and aggressively with the ball and even harder and aggressively in defense.
Although the local team were successful at turning over the Devils’ possession, the pressure started to tell and Malahide conceded a couple of penalties. A great kick to the corner gave the Devils a line-out on the 5-metre line. The ball was thrown to the back where Ryan Helfrety collected the ball and powered over the line for the first try. Keagen McCabe converted the try and the Devils found themselves with a surprising 7-0 lead.
Malahide came back hard, but the Devils defense in mid-field held firm and eventually caused a errant open field kick which was gratefully collected by Keagan and run back for try under the posts. Continued pressure resulted in a second run in by Keagan, followed by a blocked clearance kick that was recovered by Nick Mills for the Devils forth try and a stunning half-time 24-0 lead
After half-time the Malahide team came back hard and pressured the Devils with some testing positional kicks and hard-running back-play. The pressure told and Malahide clawed their way back into the game, scoring four unanswered tries and binging the score back to 24-22. The last minutes tested the pride and determination of the Devils defense. The defense held and resisted a final minute pounding of their goal line to record a hard-fought win in their first game on tour. The final score Malahide 22 SDSS Devils 24.
The Devils were hosted admirably by the Malahide club afterwards and the players, coaches and parents experienced the spirit and friendship of rugby which pervades the game world-wide
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