Academy v Limavady 1st XV (145 photos)
After a few indifferent displays it was time to give youth it’s chance as a much changed 1st XV travelled to Roughfort on the outskirts of Belfast to play promotion chasing Academy.
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The backline boasted three debutant’s from the under 19 team as well as the returning Matthew Haslett, who at 22, was one of the veterans of the team.
And it was the visitors who started on the front foot. Pressure from the forwards presented Greg Jordan with an early penalty opportunity, and ‘Kiwi’ duly obliged, but from the restart Limavady were penalised for entering the ruck from the side and the. Score after five minutes was 3-3.
The bright opening continued and a midfield move involving Faulkner and Jordan feed Chris Hunter and the centre broke through the home defence to touchdown, and Jordan added the extras. But yet again, the home side responded in the best possible fashion. With the ball being fed out to their left wing, Norman Carson showed a clean pair of heels to touchdown in the corner. The Academy scrum-half kicked a great conversion from the sideline to tie the game at 10 all with barely ten minutes played.
This was the score that lifted the home side after their slow start. The home pack lead brilliantly by the experienced Neil McCarey started to dominate everything up front. And they were rewarded for their efforts when the former Ballymena and Belfast Harlequinns player touched down twice in a dominant ten minute spell. Neither score was converted, but the home side now scored seventeen unanswered points and were in touching distance of a try scoring bonus point.
But this younger Limavady team is made of sterner stuff these days and from the restart won a penalty which Greg Jordan knocked over to reduce the gap to seven. And Kiwi seemed to be enjoying life in his new found position of centre as on the stroke of half time he touched down in the corner after good link up play with Chrissy Hunter. The conversion was missed so Academy lead at the turnaround 20-18.
Limavady started the second half the brighter, but too many unforced errors and with the lineout not functioning, the young All Blacks just could not convert all their possession into scores. And the home side were to make them pay for their mistakes, for after a scrappy lineout on the Limavady 5 metre No 8 McCarey was first to pounce to his third try and give Academy try scoring bonus point. Minutes later their lead was extended to ten points when the home scrum-half kicked a penalty. This put the visitors out of losing bonus point territory, but still had 15 minutes to get back into the game.
And back into the game they came when Greg Jordan kicked over a penalty from 30 meters. This left the score 28-21 to the B.R.A. Old boys with ten to play. The visitors totally owned the ball for the last ten minutes and were camped in the Academy ’22’, but a lack of composure and some stout defending from the home side prevented them from getting a match levelling score which the young visitors would have deserved.
Final Score Academy 28-21 Limavady
Team: M. Haslett R. McCool. G. Jordan. C. Hunter. A. Millar. L. Faulkner. J. Millar. C. Scott. I. Campbell. J. McCollum. M. McCollum. W. Hunt. D. Irvine. P. Semple. L. Clyde.
