Service steamroller High School with a solid Saturday showing
by Brinley Sturgeon
A great team effort from Service as they dominated their opponents in the first half and held together in the second half to record a valuable win
Following the deluge of previous weeks the groundsman at Stormont had done wonders and the conditions and pitch were near perfect for rugby as both teams took to the pitch looking to record a good win over their rivals and climb the table.
With Service notorious for slow starts, returning Captain Bryn Sturgeon had instructed his team to retain the ball and keep the game tight at the beginning while they gained a foothold. As it transpired they were able to do better than that and pressurised the visitors defence early on. Niall Donnelly calmly received the ball from the kick and set the ball back well for Service to make the first play of the match. With Michael Miskelly communicating well at scrum half the ball was recycled and John Byrne the fly half cleared his lines well. The pack, led by Trevor McDowell were fast up to pressurise their opponents and soon Service were pushing into the far reaches of the pitch. With lineouts contested well by both teams possession swung both ways for a while but then Service received a penalty as the pressure told. John Byrne coolly slotted over the kick to give the hosts a deserved lead early on and they continued their good play after the restart, with prop Gareth Lewis collecting the ball and driving hard into the opponents. Once more they forced heir way up the pitch and, getting a scrum just inside the 22, Moore Holmes playing at 8 broke strongly and held off a couple of despairing tackles to score the opening try.
The match was very even with both teams working hard in defence and Belfast High returned back a penalty of their own, however from their line out on the edge of their 22 they played the ball back to be cleared, however Simon Hoskins at 2nd row was fast to react and blocked the kick. The ball bounced kindly for him and he recovered it before barging through the surprised defence to score his first try of the season with John Byrne adding the resulting conversion.
With both teams fighting hard and not budging the rest of the half was an attrition battle with both teams taking knocks and no further scores were added before the end of the half as the hosts went in deserved 15-3 leaders
he second half was even more of a tight contest, the visitors were keen to close the scores quickly and they scored 3 points from a penalty early on, however the scrums in particular were strong for Service with them consistently driving their opponents back and veteran Michael Heath at hooker winning a number of balls against the head. Centres Marty Hamill and les magowan were getting a little more space to run and it too some desperate defence from High School to stop them breaking away however it was Moore Holmes once again who scored a superb individual try, jumping high to collect the kick before slaloming past a host of players to score again. Alastair Beacom on the wing was also unlucky not to be on the end of another good move but unfortunately for Service they then conceded quickly after. Possession was lost after some good counter-attacking by Ciaran O’Reilly and Matty Thompson and this left the defence exposed. A long kick bounced as only a rugby ball can and left Bryn Sturgeon helpless and hapless as the onrushing attackers recovered the ball and scored a simple try under the posts to leave the scores at 20-16. The rest of this half was nervy and scrappy, Craig Algie came on for his debut and Scott Walker came on for Simon Hoskins and injuries hit both sides with play stopped on a few occasions as players were treated but with John Byrne adding another penalty service were able to control and see out the match to end up 23-16 winners.
Man of the match: Moore Holmes- scored two tries and was the standout perfomer though it was a real team effort
Team
1. Trevor McDowell
2. Michael Heath
3. Gareth Lewis
4. Niall Donnelly
5. Simon Hoskins (sub 65- Scott Walker)
6. Stuart Moody
7. Bryn Sturgeon (c)
8. Moore Holmes
9. Michael Miskelly
10. John Byrne
11. Matt Thompson
12. Marty Hamill (sub 70- Craig Algie)
13. les magowan
14. Alistair Beacom
15. Ciaran O’Reilly
