Shamrock Bowl Conference Weekend Round-up

Another week of the Shamrock Bowl Conference and what a week! A score inside two minutes was required to split the Vikings and Trinity whilst a respectable 114 points were scored across the four match-ups.

The West Dublin Rhinos (left) fell to their third defeat at the hands of the Craigavon Cowboys (right) - photo by Ariane Boudias

North

FT- Craigavon Cowboys 23-0 West Dublin Rhinos
FT - Dublin Rebels 20 - 6 Carrickfergus Knights

The Craigavon Cowboys handed the West Dublin Rhinos their third straight shut-out in a game that will worry the away team. The Rhinos' have yet to put a point on the board and their usually solid defence is starting to show cracks, certainly conceding 23 points to the Cowboys will not have been on the cards! Furthermore they face off against the Rebels next weekend.

Meanwhile the Cowboys will take a lot away from the win, notching up their first of the season. Putting 23 points on the Rhinos isn't an easy feat but with Peter Loughran leading the attack, and scoring another brace of touchdowns, the Cowboys offence has huge potential.

In Dublin, the Rebels went about taking back the top of the division with a solid 20-6 win against the previously unbeaten Knights. Simon Mackey grabbed a pair of touchdowns in that game to add to a pick six from linebacker Kevin Finnegan. The Rebels head across Dublin to take on the Rhinos next week whilst the Knights will take on the reigning Champions, the Belfast Trojans.

The Rebels-Trojans games are building up to be tasty affairs - photo by Ariane Boudias

South

FT - UCD 34 - 6 Cork Admirals
FT - UL Vikings 13 - 12 Trinity College Dublin

UCD bounced back from their 11-0 loss to UL earlier in the season to thrash the Cork Admirals 34-6. A lot was made before this game of whether the long build up to Cork's first game would be advantageous or not to the Admirals. It gave them longer to prepare in practice but it also meant they had no match practice to draw from as all the other teams had. 

UCD grabbed their first win of the year! - photo by Ariane Boudias

The long lay off did Cork no favours as they were well beaten by UCD, who will now be looking up the division and chasing Trinity and UL. UCD face off against Trinity next week whilst Cork's next game will be the return fixture with UCD. Can they get revenge?

Speaking of revenge the UL Vikings grabbed some of their own. The Limerick team isn't that used to losing, having gone undefeated in the regular season last year, so the 20-0 loss to Trinity earlier in the season will have hurt. 

They returned the favour but had to wait until two minutes from time for the returning Marc Ashworth to hit Sean Goldrick for a touchdown pass. Rob McDowell scored his first touchdown of the year for Trinity whilst Alex Gurnee added to his tally, passing to Craig Marron for the score. Trinity take on UCD next weekend whilst UL get a week off before their third game against Trinity this year.