Civil Service Rugby Club Notes
1st XV Match Report
Lurgan 29 v 7 NICS 1st XV (Cup)
Civil Service fell to their first defeat in four outings at Saturday’s visit to old foes Lurgan, bringing to an end any hopes of progressing to the knockout stages of the Gordon West Cup.
Lurgan led 19-0 at half time, after a strong performance with Service unable to deal with the opposition’s strong running back row and centres, and an inability to secure their own ball both at the lineout and the back of the scrums.
The second half proved more competitive as Lurgan tired, with Service controlling more of the ball, but they were further undone by a Lurgan try following a lucky bounce of the ball. Service continued to press and their efforts were rewarded with a try towards the end when Stuart Ferguson wriggled his way over the line after a good break from Jonny Armstrong, who also successfully slotted the conversion.
Following last year’s humbling of Lurgan in the Wolfhound Cup, this was a disappointing score line, but it was a fair reflection of the game.
2nd XV Match Report
NICS 2nd XV 5 v 10 BHFP (Friendly)
At a sun drenched Pavilion, Civil Service 2nd XV took to the field against a BHSFP 2nd XV in a friendly but scrappy affair last Saturday.
Within the first 10 minutes of the game BHSFP had Service pinned in their own half that took some very good tackling from all of the Service backline to keep BHSFP from taking the lead. As the game progressed there were a number of penalties traded between the two teams without success before a break down the right wing by winger Kenny Dane, resulted in an unconverted try by centre Ryan Edger putting the home side into a 5 – 0 lead.
The second half started as the first half finished with some needless penalties given away by both teams, but again without much success from the boot. After some good pressure and some very slick hands from the visitors they had another chance to convert a penalty and this time they made no mistake to pull the lead back to 5 – 3. This seemed to give them the confidence to push on and put Service under a lot more pressure that took some very quick and confident decision making by full back Rauidhi McQuade to prevent BHSFP from taking the lead. Then the inevitable happened with another penalty being given away by Service in their own 22 for hands in the ruck. BHSFP took a quick tap and ran in for a converted try which let the visitors take the lead at 5-10 for the first time in the game.
With 15 minutes to go Service made a few changes that saw and end to the debut appearance of Mark Lennox being replaced by Danny Surgenor to give the front row of Colin Snodden and Michael Heath a new look and reconfiguration that seen Service win some scrums against the head.
Service almost snatched it at the end when fullback Rauidhi McQuade offloaded to winger Richard McGimpsey, but a very good covering tackling by the BHSFP centre prevented him from going under the sticks. This gave BHSFP a 5 – 10 win in a close but hard fought contest.
Colts Match Report
Colts 93 v 5 Ophir (League)
Entertaining running rugby was the order of the day with a good number of tries and conversions being scored against a hard working Ophir side in front of a large and enthusiastic support.
Forwards and backs combined well to produce a very entertaining game between two young sets of athletes which in turn drew much applause from both sets of supporters as the game progressed.
Special mention to Andrew Lilburn who was pulling the strings at 10 and who finished with a personal tally of 4 tries and 9 conversions on the day. Also worthy of note and with a hat-trick of tries was Chris Gardiner, braces from Conor Ellson and Johnny Kennedy and Matthew Rice, and one each from Jack McDowell (the first score of the match) and Jack McLaughlin, helped ensure the Colts came away with a handsome victory on home soil.
This was a great whole team performance and bodes well for the future.
Thanks are extended to Ophir who gamely competed and deservedly scored a well worked try just after half-time.
New Website
The Club has a new website powered by Pitchero and can be found by logging on to http://www.pitchero.com/clubs/civilservicenirfc Sign up to become a member, supporter, parent or player and enter into debate on the new forum, read match reports, news, events, fixtures, results, view match photos and videos and keep up to speed with what’s happening on the Civil Service Rugby Club scene and much, much more. This is a whole Club website, everyone welcome.
Tours
Both the Mini and Youth sections are considering end of season Tours to Scotland and Isle of Man respectively in April 2013. More details on these will be released in due course.
Training and Recruitment
Seniors
Monday and Wednesday evenings 18:45 – 20:30hrs
Youth (Colts)
Monday and Wednesday evenings 18:30 – 20:00hrs
Minis
Saturday mornings 10:00 – 11:00hrs (P1 – P3) and 10:00 – 11:30hrs (P4 – P7)
New players are always welcome to come along to any of the above sessions as recruitment is open all season long.
We are keen to welcome new players to all Sections of the Club and look forward to seeing you join with us soon.
Fixtures for Saturday 27th October
NICS 1st XV v Virginia (League)
NICS 2nd XV TBC
Colts TBC
Mini TBC
All Saturday fixtures have a 2.30pm kick-off unless otherwise stated.
