TRY PHASE TRY REPEAT this is a brand new report from Ned Laird Ballyclare RFC this game took place on Feb 15th at the Cloughan Ballyclare RFC big club for more information visit their social media platforms
CLARE INCREASE LEAD AT TOP OF TABLE
The Ballyclare -Randalstown game at the Cloughan on Saturday was the sole Qualifying 2 fixture to beat the weather due to the efforts of a a determined band of home officials who forked the wet areas of the pitch from 8-00 a.m. and made the surface playable. This match was sponsored by Karl Construction and the pre match lunch was attended by another large crowd as was the game -in fact this season all the home Clare games have attracted numbers above many of the A.I .L. games elsewhere in the province.Ballyclare came through as 27-10 winners to take a bonus point and extend their lead over Omagh to 9 points with the same number of games played. But this game was punctuated by far toomany stoppages in strong winds,hail ,and sleet with very little opportunity of taking use of advantage situations to try and give players and supporters the chance to enjoy a more fluid style of a match. Click HERE for David Holmes shotZ
Ballyclare had the use of a more than stiff breeze wind in the first half but still tried to run the ball from deep positions and the Randalstown defence well coached by Gary Longwell who is a past pupil of Ballyclare High proved capable and held out until 20 minutes when a break from home full back Smith led to a penalty which he kicked to edge ahead. Minutes later a strong mid field break from centre Crawford gave Smith the opening to go over near the corner for a try that was not converted so the White Hares led 8-0. Next ,following a scrum inside the ` Town 22 the visitors were penalised and home fly half N.Lawther tapped and beat the defence to score at the posts with Smith adding the points to go well clear at 15-0. Ballyclare were now attacking at pace and seemed to be through for another try only to be amazingly penalised for off side which gave Randalstown their sole chance of the half and Smyth kicked it to leave the score 15-3 at the interval.
Ballyclare now played into the strong wind in the second half and stsrted promisingly only to be penalised inside the opposite 22 but they recovered to surge up the left side with Wardrop forced into touch to prevent a score.At this point the visitors had a forward carded and from the next scrum Logan fed Morrow and the ball was slipped to the free scoring Wardrop who collected 5 tries last week and again he beat the defence to get an unconverted score as the Clare went further ahead.Further pressure initiated from skipper Boyd and Weaterup took play well into the `Town 22 and Wardrop raced clear to go in foer his second try which Smith converted. Now well into the final minutes as the weather worsened with a heavy hail shower the game Randalstown pack came forward and managed to charge down a clearance by Wardrop which led to a try from Montgomery converted by Smyth to reduce the lead to 27-10 which was the final score -it had been their sole chance in the second half when they had wind advantage.But to be fair their team despite changes due to injuries never gave up and gave the league leaders who had Stevenson in for G.McKinstry a few problems but the Clare always had the stronger edge with their attacking style even in poor weather conditions.Up front Logan,Weatherup,McKinstry and R.Boyd worked hard with Smith, Crawford and Wardrop always a threat behind the scrum.
It was not a good day for Randalstown as their 2nd Xv lost 29-12 also at the Cloughan to Ballyclare 4th XV in the Forster Cup second round.
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