A Long Day
Service, on a high from last weeks’ win, were brought to the ground with a bump mid week after many players were declared unavailable due to various reasons.
The men who were to face Cavan RFC left early on their trek south and knew that they were in for a tough day. Cavan’s dominant form of late ensured that the Service men knew they were in for a hard match and upon arrival at Cavan’s superbly upgraded facilities the lads saw the boggy pitch and it was quickly apparent that the day would be tiresome.
Cavan started strong and sported many different faces from those which had travelled to Belfast earlier in the year. They were soon testing Service’s mettle and the men in ‘what began as white’ saw the home team chip over a couple of early penalties before responding with strikes of their own to level the scores until Cavan wriggled over for the only try of the game.
Footing was loose and soft at best and scrummaging became difficult, Service struggled to set up a strong platform without a working set peice but the much changed side dug in and halted the Red advance. Big hits from Moore Holmes Jnr and Brian Bogle were striking fear in the Cavan runners and the support work from Sturgeon and Murray in the back row made sure that a penalty a piece in the second half was all that was scored.
A saddening defeat for Service but in testing conditions applaud must go to them for ensuring that Cavan didn’t get the full revenge they obviously sought. Service will be looking for their regular players to return to ensure that the next weeks crunch match against Ophir has a more satisfactory result.
