Pythons Slay Lurgan
The Pythons travelled to Lurgan with high hopes and these hopes were raised during the warm up when Marty Gault decided to bleed all over the pitch and had to pull out of the game. This led to Roly Coey doing the honourable thing and pulling on a shirt and filling in. Marty Gault had actually managed to break his nose while playing touch in the warm up. Some were heard to say that the broken nose made Marty Gault even uglier but surely that could not be possible.
The game started and the Pythons quickly asserted their authority on the game and got the first try through the full back which went unconverted. Eggy soon added a simple penalty and Mikey Morris, completing a full 80 minutes for the first time in 2 years, added a second try which also went unconverted. It was a strange kicking day for young Egner. Ben Crawford then picked up the ball 10 metres into the Lurgan half and galloped over the line to score his 2nd try in 2 weeks from a combined distance of about 100 metres. The full back then added a second try, diving over the line following good work from Chimp. Eggy then managed to convert the try from right on the touch line to continue his mixed day with the boot. All Lurgan had to show for their first half work was a solitary penalty and the loss of a player to a hamstring strain to leave the half time score 27-3.
At half time Lurgan were particularly vocal and they started the 2nd half like a team with nothing to lose and quickly they set about eating into the Grosvenor lead with 2 quick scores to bring the score to 27-15 and they were by far the better team at this stage and looking like adding further scores. Ally Walker scored 2 tries to settle the Pythons nerves and the fight soon left Lurgan although several of their players decided they were going to punch their way to success. Stevie George completed the scoring with a try next to the posts and the Lurgan centre was heard calling the Belfast teams parentage into question. The final score was 46-15 and truthfully apart from a loose 20 minutes at the start of the 2nd half Grosvenor were by far the better side and were well deserving of their comfortable win.
Man of the match this week goes to Marty Gault for getting injured in the warm up and allowing Roly Coey to take his place. What a prize clown!
Try fest at Civil Service
Grosvenor progressed to the semi-finals of the McCrea Cup with a thumping win over Civil Service at Stormont.
The first try came after only five minutes when some neat handling created a gap in midfield and Jim Neill powered through under the posts. Conversion added 7-0. Grosvenor gathered the restart and the forwards rumbled up the field before unleashing Chris Quinn who scorched up the line and dotted down in the corner. 12-0. Almost from the restart another neat handling move by the backs created another gap and Ryan Stewart sprinted through for a great try, but unfortunately tweaked his hamstring in the process and left the field. 19-0. Service were guilty of killing the ball at a series of rucks in an attempt to slow the Grosvenor juggernaut and were lucky not to lose a man to the bin. Matthew Fitzsimmons converted a penalty. 22-0. The forwards then got in on the act after twenty minutes with Jack Adams scoring a try after some fine mauling. 27-0. On the half hour Davy Egner scored a great try sprinting in from forty metres out and eluding three defenders with a neat body serve and some nifty footwork. Conversion added 34-0. Another try followed to leave the score 39-0 at half-time.
Grosvenor started the second half strongly when Peter Dawson crashed over for a lovely try which was converted. 46-0. Both sides were then disrupted through injuries and after the fireworks of the first half the game petered out into a dull affair, only illuminated by a Craig Steele try at the death. Final score 53-0.
A fine win and a McCrea Cup semi-final to look forward to for the first time in over two decades. Man-of-the-match was close this week with fine performances by James Senior, Peter Dawson and Jack Adams but Gummy was in scintillating form at out-half and gets the nod.
Last Updated on Sunday, 06 March 2011 18:53
