Devels loose Out to Ards
The Kinetica sponsored “Deramore Devels” travelled to Hamilton Park to face Ards 2nd XV in the Ulster Senior 2nd XV league hoping to move towards a second spot in the league but this was to be denied by the home side.
Although Ards had worked out that to keep the ball in the first half would cut down any chance of the Quins side scoring neither side had counted on the match officially odd decisions.
The first half was uninteresting with the home side retaining the ball and and not even passing past their 10, it was an effective tactic but with the strong Quins defence the game was played out in between the two 10 metre lines. The only two times Ards made it to the Quins 22 was through a break in the line due to an injury and what looked like a sure try but for the Ards player to drop the ball is if tackled by an invisible defender, the other occasion was 28 mins into the game when a penalty was awarded near enough to take a shot at the post which was successful. 3-0
The penalty count was in this half was to pave the way for some odd decisions with the match official giving a penalty on an average of every 3 minutes which on occasions baffled both sides and spectators, this along with Ards game plan made for a very uninteresting but effective first half for the home side.
The second half was to become controversial and credit to Ards they made most of the situation reading the referee and spoiling any Quins scoring opportunities.
The second half was to be more open with Quins getting their hands on the ball and dominating the collision area but only 4 mins into the half a penalty for hands in a ruck gave the home side the opportunity to take their deserved lead to 6 – 0.
The restart kick off appeared to go the required 10 metres but was played anyway by an Ards prop, pressure caused him to loose the ball and the referee to blow his whistle and award the scrum to Ards as the ball hadn’t gone the 10 metres?
Both side played some good rugby over the next 10 to 15 minutes but Quins started to get into the game and put pressure on the Ards line. This soon lead to a forwards try scored by “Devels” debutante Jack Lavery, conversion was missed., 6 – 5
Quins kept the pressure on and this resulted in a number of 5 metre mauls and scrums, however the match official was again to produce some good decisions, on 3 occasions when Quins mauled over the touchline to score the referee adjudicated they were held up and as a result of not grounding the ball the scrums were awarded to the defending side ? Unfortunately soon after this passage of play a lapse in defence concentration saw Ards run in an easy converted try. 13 – 5
On another occasion when Quins had a 5 metre scrum the Ards scrumhalf made his way infront of the referee and took up a position behind the Quins number 8 as if he was a Quins player so when the 8 broke from the scrum the 9 tackled him and another scoring opportunity went.
Quins were frustrated in the game and although the stronger side and creating good scoring opportunities the decisions stopped this from happening.
Four minutes before full time former Ards player PK McKee went over the line to score out wide after some good handling, Matt Mullan made the conversion, 13 – 12.
Quins secured the restart but an error caused the ball to be lost and the full time whistle.
An interesting game in which credit to the home side they played the decisions to their advantage, Quins must lick their wounds and move on. They have a small break in fixtures and during this time a number are going to the Dubai Sevens to take part in that tournament which will be good training for the rest of their season
