By Kay O'Reilly
August 30 2011

Kay O'Reilly was at the Leinster Friendly Pre-season match. Here are her thoughts on the trip, which sounds to have been a bit of a blast!

We had the good fortune to stay in a hotel which was a 10 minute walk turning right out of the hotel to Donnybrook and a 10 minute walk turning left to the Aviva Stadium.

We touched down in rainy Dublin at 5pm on Friday, KO was T minus 2 hours. Mad dash from the airport, throw bags in the hotel, and hot foot it to Donnybrook.  First stop, the bar, KO T minus 20 minutes.  For those of you who have never been to Donnybrook, it reminded me of many of the ND 1 grounds we visited.   Not sure of the capacity, but I would guess around 4,000.  It was pretty full, with the attendance announced at around 3,500. ( had a few beers by the time they announced the attendance, so I can't quite remember exactly).  They had a mini village type area selling lots of really good food, and a clubhouse.   They also had the actual Heinekin Cup at the ground, for the fans to have themselves photographed holding it (that hurt a bit).  Donnybrook was Leinsters home ground until they moved to the RDS about  4 years ago.  Now it is mainly used for schools rugby, so we were told.   

To the game,  I would not really consider this a match report, but I can tell you this.  The Saints were well worth their win.  The passing, scrum, line out, numbers at the breakdown were spot on, for most of the game.   That's about as technical as I can get (there are so many ever so knowledgeable folk that read and contribute to this board, I am to afraid to comment further on the technical aspects, hence this being a trip report rather than a match report, cop out I know!). I reckon there were no more than 50 non Leinster fans at the ground.  I spotted a few Saintly shirts and just one from Bath.  There was very little cheering from the Leinster fans until 60 minutes from time, more jeering in fact.  We were so close to niling them. (and the ref was a certain Mr George Clancy). Lots of  "ah be jesus". "support" and "come on ref, feck it" was coming from all around us.     

Dickson started, and started very well.  About 30(ish) mins into the game, I think Dickson got a knock and the coaches wanted him off.  Someone had to run onto the pitch and pull him off, he did not want to come off, he looked absolutely gutted to be leaving the pitch.   I really hope there is no injury. Roberts was also very good though. (this may have just been a tactical change, but we didn't think so).    

At half time we were standing near the Saints changing room. (this was unbeknown to us, but as luck would have it!!)  It was the sort of set up where the changing rooms are at each end of the pitch, sort of like Bath, but each team at opposite ends.  When the team came out of the tunnel (as it were, journalistic licence), you could feel the team spirit, with the bench and other players forming a guard of honour cheering the boys back on the pitch, it was awesome.  The look on the faces of the players was one of total focus.  This was no friendly, they were here to win.    

The two late tries from Leinster only put some gloss on the score line.  The Saints really were well worth their win.  

Myler had a really good game, my man of the match.  In fact Myler and Lamb were 100% with the boot, and they were not all easy kicks.    

After the whistle, we had another beer in the clubhouse, it would have been rude not to, and chatted to some lovely Leinster fans about how great Cardiff was.............. (that is the Leinster fans telling us how great Cardiff was!!)  We did meet some great characters.  Only around 100 - 200 fans stayed around at the ground after full time. Think there must have been lots of good rugby pubs near by.  ( mental note to self, find the good rugby pubs near Doonybrook for next visit).   

We were a bit tired, so we decide to go back to the hotel and just have a couple for the road  (it was a long and winding road, with no end in sight!)  So we are sitting in the hotel bar, about 10 ish and in walks some of the sky commentary team. As we were wearing Saints shirts, Dewi Morris came over and tapped my husband on the shoulder and asked how the Saints got on.  He sounded genuinely pleased when we told him how good they were and what the final score was. 14 - 19, by the way. 

Then the rest of the sky commentary team appeared.  Bit over the top for a friendly we thought, but then it was a game with the two teams who played each other in one of the best ever heiny cup finals.  On no, they were here for game 2 on Saturday.  Can't spill the beans about what we saw the sky commentators doing, what happens on tour and all that.   

This brings me nicely on to Ireland v England.  Well actually that game was on the telly, so I don't need to fill you in about that one.  Suffice to say, it was good to finally see England win in Ireland again,  and our beloved Saints of course.   I did manage to liberate one of the Ireland flags for the growing collection of team flags on the ceiling of the Beckett.

After the game, and getting totally soaked, we left Dublin with some of my husbands family (they are Irish).  We went to their house, as we were staying over for a couple of nights.  They live about an hour north of Dublin near the coast.  We had a big bowl of delicious Irish stew, a few glasses of red, and then out again for a night on the tiles.   Did I mention that I was barred from talking about the game!!

For a couple of friendlies, it was a most exellent weekend.