Civil Service (NI) RFC 2nd XV 27 Randalstown 3rd XV 7.
In perfect rugby-playing weather, Service stepped on to the pitch at Randalstown confident of defeating Randalstown 3s, but before the game began there was a minute silence for Don Owens, former Chair of the Selection Committee at Civil Service and loyal club servant who had passed away aged 76. This was perfectly adhered to by both teams and was a great mark of respect for the Civil Service man.
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Service set about establishing a lead and after some early pressure Neil Palmer was able to disrupt the Randalstown scrum and from the resulting turn over Danny Ansell crashed over to score.
The Service pressure continued with John Kelly and Colin Snodden disrupting the Town lineout and after 12 minutes Kenny Dane was denied in the corner by some desperate Randalstown defence. This was followed by a disallowed effort from Neil Palmer. Ryan Campbell and John Kelly stepping in to start as flankers were disrupting the Randalstown play well and causing them problems of their own with their attacking runs that Town did well to repel.
However eventually with 25 minutes gone the Randalstown defence was breached again after Danny Ansell crashed over the line for his second try, which was duly converted by Andy Gilmour. Stewart Ferguson then broke with some strong, mazy running but was unable to find support and Randalstown were able to clear their lines after some desperate scrambling defence
George Brown was the next Service player to go close to scoring when he was held up on the Randalstown line but Just a few minutes later Service fly half Will Agnew powered across the line to score. The first half scoring was completed by try scoring flanker turned prop Gareth Edwards who took his seasons tally to 5.
With Randalstown rallying in the second half there was some fantastic defence from all the players but tackles from Kenny Dane and Captain Bryn Sturgeon stood out. Randalstown efforts were rewarded after some dogged defence by Service when they were able to finally crash over the line at short range
With the Service defence reinforced with the introduction of Simon Black, Rab Snodden and Brett Jones they held fast against further Randalstown pressure and were able to push forward and score a fifth try through Peter Tweed after some fantastic work from Stephen Hein and Rab Snodden. The match had long been won but Randalstown refused to give up and kept up the pressure on Service and Neil Palmer, moved to fullback, needed all of his experience to deal with. In the end a strong performance and good result against a spirited Randalstown team
