After last weeks defeat of Wellington College, Friends School Lisburn Medallion faced Antrim Grammar at Lisburn in the run in to the first round of the Medallion Shield.
The game started well for the home side and 5 minutes into the game Lisburn centre Kirk McGrady took a lovely pass for number 8, Gareth Hill to go over the Antrim line, converted by James Maxwell, some four minutes later it was a reverse when McGrady fed Hill who crossed the Antrim line and again converted by Maxwell.
Antrim came back and mauled their way into the Lisburn’s 22, however after a series of mauls, Friends outside centre Ryan Hall received the ball and zig zagged his way thought the Antrim defence however some excellent defence work saw him brought to ground however the supporting Hill was there to take the pop ball resulting in his
second try of the day, converted by Maxwell.
Antrim again came back after the restart and challenged the home sides defence and were unlucky not to score close to the posts but quick reaction to spilled ball saw the home side make their way down the pitch, Antrim’s defence was good but the Friends offloading worked for them and this saw McGrady taking a good tackle but off loading to the supporting Bart Campbell who charged through the full back’s tackle to score, converted by Maxwell.
The final say of the half was to be Campbell’s from a good kick chase by Daniel Magennis saw him recover the ball and pass inside to Campbell, converted by Maxwell.
H/T score 35 – 0
At halftime both sides restructured their sides which saw a much more competitive half with Antrims loose head prop coming tho the fore in defence. He made the tackle of the match by tracking down Friends flying centre Ryan Hall as Hall made his way through the Antrim defence to go in for a certain try he was tackled and forced into touch and Antrim won the resulting lineout and cleared their lines The 9, 10 , 12 combination of Antrim started to control the game and it was not long until their work paid off when Antrim went in for a converted try.
Friends were to finish the game off with two more unconverted tries through Ryan Hall and a powerful performance resulting in an unconverted try by Stephen Gibson.
Final score 45 – 7
