Despite the poor weather the Civil Service 2nd XV took to the pitch at Stormont determined to extend their unbeaten run and continue the scintilating try scoring form that had proved too much for Cooke 4’s the previous Saturday.
Lots of photos here of Service v Ophir CLICK HERE thanks to Civil Service Rugby For The Pictures
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With last weeks Captain Brian Wilson unavailable Neil Palmer took over the reins of a side welcoming back No.8 Jason Orderly, Lock Robin Flemming, Blindside Flanker Gareth Edwards and giving a full league debut to Scrum Half Alastair Montgomery.
Still fired up from last weeks handsome victory over Cooke the Service players set about their work quickly and after an Alastair Montgomery box kick pushed Ophir back into their 22 the Service Fowards pinned them back to their try line. When Ophir failed to clear the ball from a scrum just under their posts quick thinking flanker Gareth Edwards was able to dive on the ball and give Service a very early lead.
Another Alastair Montgomery box kick was soon chased through by Neil Palmer but the resulting try was disallowed by the match official.
Further Service pressure on the Ophir try line quickly became a second score when Jason Orderly spotted a gap in the defence and picked and went. With support from Robert Warnock and Davey Harris he smashed his way across the whitewash to score Service’s second try.
He quickly scored a second try after Service had won a 5 metre scrum underneath the Ophir posts, picking from the back of the scrum he charged trough 4 defenders to make it 19 v0 to Service. The first half scoring was rounded off when Ophir again failed to clear their lines and Gareth Edwards emerged from the bottom of a pile of bodies to claim his second and Services fourth try of the game which was converted by Danny Ansell to leave the score 26v0 at half time.
After the interval the service players picked up where they left off and soon found themselves on Ophir’s try line again. William Agnew almost marked his return from injury with a try but was held up just short of the line. However quick thinking from Danny Ansell meant the ball was recycled quickly allowing Service Fly Half Neil Palmer to release Ryan Campbell to score.
Service then added a sixth try when Scrum half Alastair Montgomery burst through tackles to score from a 5 metre scrum and Danny Ansell was on hand to convert. Another two tries could have followed but decent efforts from Robin Fleming and David Millar were disallowed; Robin was ruled to be held up and David was deemed to have received a forward pass.
As the scores mounted Ophir’s discipline faltered and a yellow card was shown for persistant back chat to the ref, which was made worse when they sustained an injury in their backrow. With more and more gaps appearing, Alastair Montgomery chased his own kick and grounded the ball for his second try before a penalty try for a dangerous tackle on Danny Ansell sealed the result. Credit goes to the brave Ophir players whos commitment and passion never faltered. Even when they were reduced to 13 men they still ran ever ball and were unlucky to be nilled.
Final Score Civil Service 2nd XV 52 Ophir 3s 0
Scorers
Gareth Edwards 2 tries
Jason Orderly 2 tries
Alastair Montgomery 2 tries
Ryan Campbell 1 try
Penalty try
Danny Ansell 6 Conversions
Thanks to Linzey Grierson for video footage of the game and to James Kay for the photographs
Michael Currans Man of the Match
Alastair Montgomery
