Newry 1st XV 10 Randalstown 1st XV 35
Randalstown 1sts and 2nds travelled down to face their Newry counterparts on Saturday and both came away with convincing wins.
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The firsts recorded a 35 – 10 victory under sometimes difficult circumstances with the game becoming almost farcical at times under the referee’s dubious jurisdiction.
It was Newry who drew first blood with about 10 minutes played when ‘town coughed up a penalty in an easily kickable position. The visitors however settled quickly after that and from the drop out after some great scavenging by James Millar the ball was shipped to Laverty, again in the out half berth and he bombed through for the first try of the afternoon. O’Kane added the conversion and ‘Town were up and running.
Randalstown kept Newry pinned in their own half for the next quarter of hour with intelligent kicking from Laverty and good marshalling of the pack by Allen. A well taken lineout and a good shove on saw the ball being made available to Wilson who is a reliable finisher in these situations. O’Kane again added the extras.
McWhirter was unlucky not to get his name on the score sheet before half time after Ryan McGarry made good ground and found Fleck in support initially. Fleck put in a neat grubber kick down the touchline which McWhirter was on to but he was just denied. With about 5 minutes to go in the first half ‘Town were actually awarded a penalty. Laverty opted for the corner but underestimated the stiff breeze at his back and the ball went long. Curiously a scrum from where the kick had been taken was awarded to Newry rather than the expected drop out and perhaps this was a sign of things to come.
Hyndman had to retire from the fray with a back injury and that allowed Newry to take advantage of the territorial position gifted to them but a penalty chance went begging and the half finished 14 – 3 in favour of Randalstown.
Quickly out of the blocks at the start of the second half ‘Town cantered in courtesy of Blayne McGarry, again converted by O’Kane to stretch the lead further. For the next 20 minutes the scoreboard came to a halt as ‘Town tried to play rugby but were consistently on the wrong end of some perplexing decisions by the man in the middle, until finally a great steal by Wilson saw O’Kane and Laverty in support. Laverty was able to pop to Blayne McGarry and the pacey centre wasn’t going to be caught speeding in for his 2nd score of the afternoon. The trusty boot of O’Kane was once again on target and ‘Town’s lead was extended to 28 – 3.
Newry then worked their way down the park and only some very stout ‘town defence particularly from D Millar, Wilson and O’Kane kept them from adding to their account. The ref then added further to his comedy repertoire when he sin binned 2 Randalstown players apparently for one offence. Reduced now to 12 men for the remainder of the game ‘Town stuck to their offensive task collectively and on the stroke of full time Ryan McGarry broke from nothing down the left wing to score in the corner. O’Kane added the difficult conversion.
This was a bruising encounter with frequent stoppages for injury and the entire Randalstown team are to be commended for this victory, and more so for not allowing themselves to become frustrated by some fairly awful refereeing.
Team: D Jamieson P Morriss B McGarry P McWhirter R McGarry P Laverty J O’Kane J Adair S Finlay D Millar (Capt) M Allen S Hyndman A Fleck D Wilson J Millar
Newry 2nd XV 10 Randalstown 2nd XV 24
Showing a number of changes, including a late call up to the firsts for captain Hyndman Randalstown 2nds returned home with the 2 points as well.
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It was a fine defensive performance which set up the win, as they soaked up a lot of early pressure from a rugged Newry side. The home side, despite opening the scoring with a penalty after about 20 minutes, and having the bulk of possession never threatened the ‘Town line. After a turgid half hour the bright spot was the Randalstown try. Adam Boyd fielded a long ball inside his own 10 metre line and along with live-wire winger Ben Tsui counter attacked before linking with Hodges. The young and pacey 2nd row broke several tackles before the ball was spun along the back line on the half way line ending up with centre Moon who set off on a mazy run, showing some nifty footwork and a startling turn of pace to jink his way in for a fine score which Turner converted.
The 2nd half was more of the same with Newry’s pick and drive efforts being repelled by some determined ‘Town defence. The back row of Harris, Ings and McBride were outstanding in this area.
Then mobile prop Kenny Pollen fielded a loose clearance kick on half way and took off down the wing using Tsui as a decoy to beat the last defender and speed in for an unconverted try.
With about 20 minutes played good defence around the fringes saw the visitors force Newry into spilling the ball, and sprightly centre Johnston kicked through. Cathcart pounced on the loose ball and passed to Turner, who drew his man and delivered a perfectly timed pass to Tsui who made no mistake to record his first score for Randalstown.
Pedlow, McConnon & Hodges then punched holes in the home defence around the half way line allowing Cathcart, Hamilton and Tsui to handle before finding Pollen lurking on the wing again, and the speedy prop raced in for his second try, with Cathcart adding the conversion on this occasion.
A soft try for Newry in the last minute saw the gap narrowed to 24 -10 after ‘Town fumbled the ball in their own 22, but this wasn’t going to affect the final outcome.
‘Town fully deserved the 2 points for this hard working performance. The front 5 worked their socks off in the set pieces pushing the bigger home pack off a number of scrums, while Hodges and Ings were dominant in the line out, but the pick of this great team performance was winger Ben Tsui who was prepared to run from anywhere and was involved in all ‘Town’s best moments in the match.
Team: A Boyd B Winter A Johnston S Moon B Tsui M Turner B Cathcart K Pollen B Hamilton J Pedlow N Hodges F McConnon D Harris T McBride R Ings
Randalstown 3rd XV 35 Academy 3rd XV 55
Randalstown 3rds visited Roughfort on Saturday and faced a very strong Academy side. On any other day t
Next Saturday the 2nds entertain Ophir at Neillsbrook while the 3rds travel up to cottonmount to take on Ophir 3rds.
heir performance would have been good enough to beat most teams.
Town fielded a much changed side for the 3rd game in a row due to unavailability’s and injuries and it took time for the team to gel. By the time this happened Academy were now 20 points up but from here on in town gave as good as they got matching score for score.
In a free flowing game by both sides aided by a referee who was happy to let both teams play, Town’s forwards and backs combined well to cross the Academy line 6 times with Ryan McAuley returning after an 18 month absence scoring twice. Further tries were scored by David Asquith, David Smith, Andrew Sloane and Peter Heyburn.
Manager McCann was satisfied by the performance knowing that the first win of the season will come soon and more will follow. Also satisfactory was the performance of new recruits Heyburn, Kirkpatrick and in particular Goodrich who showed up well all round the pitch and also the welcome return of the ‘VET’ Vernon Thom playing his first game since a serious ankle break 2 years ago.
Team :- A Sloane, I Harrison, D Smith, D Asquith, R Duncan, R McAuley, A Service, M Hamilton, A McClenaghan, T McCann, J Scott, S McClenaghan, M Savage, A Adair, S Goodrich.
Subs :- P Heyburn, V Thom, J Kirpatrick.
