Normal service resumed (eventually) following Freeze, thaw, burst pipes, too many pints, spuds, crisps and chocolates over the past 6 weeks or so since we had our last day our at Bangor. We tried and failed last week to play Cooke, so…..Take Two! This time in the League.
We had a delay to our start, as the AIL game between Inst and Sundays Well overran which seemed to catch us out with Cooke immediately getting into a pattern of recycling and driving at us in our own half. Our first up tackling wasn’t so hot, and we struggled to establish any pattern or possession. It is no surprise then that on 7mins, Cooke drove straight through some soft defence to open the score: 7 – 0. Things didn’t get much better after the restart, with the same pattern continuing until on 18mins, Cooke pounced on some poor work at the line out, and poured through pretty weak defending on our part, to score: crucially the conversion was missed 12 – 0. This could be a long afternoon!
Some strong words among the team and from coach McKee seemed to do the trick and we began to play like an Academy team should – better tackling, good retention of the ball – more like it. On 22mins we had our first meaningful visit to the Cooke half with some great bullocking runs from Ricky “Hold the” Press, who at one stage run right over the Cooke #9. One of these runs almost resulted in Chris McCarey finishing off a sweeping move, only to be stopped short of the Cooke line. We had the bulk of the possession for the rest of the 2nd “quarter”, but some unforced errors hampered us making the most of this possession. One thing that was evident was that Cooke were resorting to some spicy off the ball stuff, as a consequence of our growing domination – not much help from the ref on this unfortunately. By half time we hadn’t scored, but neither had Cooke. We were definitely in charge of the ball, and given the wind advantage to Cooke – a decent outcome!
The second half started well with Cooke getting pinged at a ruck about 40m out which Coop slotted over, 41mins 12- 3. Our first (and only) real set back occurred when Will Martin hobbled off with a sore “Hammy” and Nick Simpson replaced him on the right wing on 44mins. He was right in the mix defensively from the off and did all asked of him to stop Cooke 2 or 3 times in succession. On 47 mins Coop punished some more Cooke ill discipline at the breakdown from half way: 12 – 6. Game really on now.
We were playing most of the decent rugby in the p—ing rain, mixing forward driving with thrusts in midfield; contrasting Cooke’s up the jumper bashing …..One stand out move, on 51 mins involved a great tap down from the LO by Chris McCarey with Nasher catching the ball, Goalie style over his head in contact, he drove straight through the 10/12 channel for us to ruck and move right, only for the move to be stopped by last ditch Cooke defence, still 12 – 6 though. Cooke came back at us and, on 58mins, following some great sustained defence over 8 phases, we turned Cooke over in our half. Andy “Gimme some sweets” Egglestone shredded the Cooke midfield and ran 35 m to score, finally outpacing the covering Cooke #15, crucially Coop converted: 12 -13!
The balance of the half was characterized by good defence on both sides, some odd decisions by Cooke, charged down kicks in defence by us, but no real threat from Cooke and resolute domination when on the ball by us. Not a classic 22 mins, but unsurprising given the wind and rain – just like the fare at Ravers round the corner. Bang on 83 mins the ref blew for full time.
Final Score: Cooke 12 – Academy 13
Cooke’s first league defeat of the season, at home, to Academy; Academy 5 wins on the trot……whatever next????
See you all at Portadown for a potential cracker next week!!
