Showcasing a very effective and dynamic backline, Royal Irish rode a torrid first half to beat #6 school team St. Ignatius 36-14 Saturday at Fortess Obetz just outside Columbus, Ohio.

This was an intriguing bellwether game for the #3 HS club and the #6 school team, and in the end Royal Irish showed themselves to be (almost) every bit as advertised.

It must be noted that Ignatius was playing during their spring break and were missing a couple of players due to that and injury, and star loose forward Marty Lenehan was not available as he was serving a suspension for a red card received two weeks ago.

However, while those absences made the St. Ignatius job harder, Royal Irish is still the real deal.

Royal Irish also punished Ignatius mistakes and those mistakes started to show themselves early. The Wildcats pressured the Irish but a ball mishandle and then a penalty for holding onto the ball in the tackle—the result of the ballcarrier being isolated—lifted the pressure. Irish flyhalf Tommy Hannon kicked to touch, using the wind to gain huge yardage, and then the ball was spun wide to wing Toss Kelsey who zipped around the edge to score in the corner. 

Up 5-0 Royal Irish went right back down into the Ignatius 22 and scored on an eightman pick from huge No. 8 Sean Neier. Hannon was good on the conversion and suddenly it was 12-0.

More Irish pressure and some Ignatius penalties then opened up the door for Irish to spin it wide again, and Kelsey was in for his second. 

A yellow card for Ignatius didn’t make it any easier and the Cleveland-area school was in major trouble.

But they got it together, worked their phases and got under the Royal Irish skin. Already the Irish were having trouble working with the referee and could have stood to keep quiet about it—certainly their opinions fell on deaf ears.

Ignatius took a lineout in the Irish end and looked in excellent position to score, but a poor pass coupled with a hard tackle resulted in a scrum for Royal Irish. They punched the ball up, kicked deep, and when the return kick was held up by the wind, got another attacking lineout. One run and a quick recycle and Neier was in for his second. Hannon converted and it was 26-0 at halftime.

But the wind was picking up and at the break Royal Irish coaches and players stressed that they needed to handle the Ignatius kicking game and stop worrying about the referee’s calls. 

But their plans didn’t really come to fruition. JP Koscielski scored early for Irish thanks to a lineout error and some heads-up play from Neier, but after that it was mostly Ignatius.

The Wildcats had fixed their ball control errors and using flyhalf Bobby Voth’s boot and a smart kick-chase pinned Royal Irish in their own 22 for much of the second half. A series of penalties put Irish on the back foot and then after big runs from Joey Georges and Sean Ward, Sean Lipaj powered over from a scrum move.

Voth was good on the conversion and Ignatius had life. They were back in the Irish 22 soon thereafter and while the Irish held on, tackling tenaciously, they continued to run afoul of the ref and eventually wing Georges came in on a play up the middle and scored to make it, with Voth’s conversion, 31-14.

Irish settled down and put together a superb sequence to put fullback Dylan Peters over, but in many ways the game left both coaching staffs shaking their heads.

“Royal Irish is a very good team,” said Ignatius head Coach Dan Arbeznik, “But we had at least three scoring chances in their 22 in the first half that we gave away, and worse yet they came right back and scored on us instead. Even when we did score in the second half, it took us way too long.”

“We have talent one through 15,” said Irish Head Coach Dave Snyder. “But we had to be disciplined and not get emotional over how the game is being called. When we run our system, we feel we can score on anybody. We’ve just got to learn to live with some of the other factors in the game.”

Royal Irish 36

Tries: Kelsey 2, Neier 2, Koscielski, Peters

Convs: Hannon 3

St. Ignatius 14

Tries: Lipaj, Georges

Convs: Voth 2