Randalstown bounced back from a disappointing defeat in their previous outing before Christmas to record a morale boosting victory in a conference fixture against Malone 2s. The return of Gareth Henry to number 8 after a long injury lay off was an important factor in an impressive forward display which laid the foundations of this 17 – 15 win.
‘Town were slow to start and looked rusty after a 3 week lay off so it was Malone who took the upper hand early on. It took the visitors just 11 minutes to turn their dominance into points when their flanker hit a good line close in and split the ‘Town defence to crash over.
10 minutes later only stout defence from O’Kane and Coulter kept the visitors from adding to their tally, but this was only a brief respite as minutes later Malone stretched the home defence, who ran out of tacklers, and again went over in the corner.
10 – nil down after half an hour ‘Town gradually began to pull themselves into the game. The home pack were always on top in the scrums and were securing good possession in the line out, but when this was coupled with the backs beginning to make their tackles count the tide began to turn a little. It was some hard tackling in midfield by the McGarry brothers that led to Malone coughing up a penalty on their 22. O’Kane slotted an excellent kick in the blustery conditions to bring the score to 10 – 3.
This seemed to spark Randalstown into action, and with Alex Fleck, Henry and D Millar all to the fore, the forwards pounded the visitors line. Unfortunately the efforts did not lead to any additional points on the board before the break, but ‘Town started the second half in similar mode. Again they were frustrated and much against the run of play Malone broke and after a series of rucks close to the ‘Town line they crossed for a 3rd unconverted score.
It would be fair to say that ‘Town were still on top in all aspects of the game at this stage. Wilson and James Millar were increasingly influential in the rucks and mauls using their strength to turn over a number of balls. O’Kane saw a penalty bounce back off the upright however before ‘Town finally got back on the score sheet. A great drive by the impressive Johnny Adair was stopped just short and in the ensuing melee Malone lost their tight head for the remainder of the game with an arm injury. From the resultant uncontested scrummage O’Kane went blind feeding Ryan McGarry. The winger was held up but James Millar was on hand to pick up and barge over for a well deserved try. O’Kane slotted over the difficult conversion from out wide and it was game on.
With their tails now well and truly in the air and urged on by a sizeable crowd, the home side tore into Malone for the remaining 12 minutes combining some ferocious tackling from the back line and energy sapping driving by the pack. The pressure bore fruit when a scrum again on the 22 saw the ball flicked to Blayne McGarry and the centre sliced through the visiting defence. Although he was stopped 5 metres out he was able to pop to skipper Foster coming at considerable pace and he dived over under the posts leaving an easier conversion for O’Kane and putting ‘Town into the lead for the first time in the game. They held on to the lead for the remaining few minutes to run out well deserved winners.
Coach Stevenson was delighted to see his side blow off the cobwebs before the league re-starts in a fortnight, clawing themselves back into a game that looked over after half an hour. It was hard to pick out individuals, but the returning Henry was a major influence at number 8 while Matty Turner made an assured first start on the 1st XV with a good all round game.
Team: C Coulter W Fleck D McGarry B McGarry R McGarry M Turner J O’Kane J Adair S Finlay N Foster D Millar J Millar D Wilson A Fleck G Henry
Next Saturday the 1st XV travel to Harlequins for another Conference fixture while the 2nd XV entertain Ards 3rds at Neillsbrook in the Forster Cup.
