A RECENT five day trip to Paris by Kelly College first XV dovetailed nicely with England rugby team?s unexpected success at the Rugby World Cup. Part of the trip included watching the third and fourth play off between the hosts, France, and Argentina in one of the best games of the tournaments. During the tour the college played two matches itself. The first was against Bagnoletais Rugby Club, in the eastern regions of Paris. In a close match Kelly took the lead with a James Falvey penalty. This proved to be the only score of the half in a tight contest between the forwards and backs from both sides. Immediately after the interval, Kelly?s talented fly half Liam Yeo crossed the opposition?s line to take an 8 ? 0 lead. Bagnoletais, lifted by the home crowd, threatened the Kelly line on a number of occasions eventually driving over in the corner. At 8 ? 5 the game could have gone either way, however, the superior Kelly backs scored twice more through scrum half Matthew McKone and centre James Falvey. Falvey converted both to make it 22-5 to the tourists. With tickets for the final going at £1,000 each, the group decided to watch the final under the glittering lights of the Eiffel Tower on an erected big screen, which members agree was ?a once in a lifetime experience.? Unfortunately England lost but Kelly made up for this in their second game against one of the three Sports Academy Schools in Paris - Sports Etudes Galilee. Playing under lights in a superb stadium Kelly was up against a higher class opposition. Straight from the start the more physical and speedy backs of the Galilee team ripped the Kelly defence open and they scored after two minutes. Kelly then began to play with intelligence and speed and George Hall drove over the line to even the scores at 7-7. But key injuries to Liam Yeo, Tom Wylie and Matthew McKone meant Kelly had to make a big reshuffle of players. The game became very physical with the referee struggling to keep control of a highly contested game. The superior academy backs started to break through the Kelly defence for Galilee to score again just before half time. At 7 ? 12 down at the interval and with the wind now on their backs, Kelly played tactically well to keep pinning the opposition back and forcing errors. Centre James Falvey converted a penalty to take Kelly within a score at 10 ? 12 before Galilee again went ahead to make it 17 ? 10. However, after a fine blindside break Kelly fullback Dominic McCarthy broke free to score under the posts breaking from his own half. Falvey converted with two minutes to go. At 17 ? 17, and seconds to go, Captain, Richard Goldsby-West attempted a drop goal from the half way line that hit the up- rights and went dead, to the sound of the final whistle.
