Second Round Medallion Shield Friends Lisburn 3 v Omagh Academy 3
The Second round fixture of the Medallion Shield between Friends School Lisburn and Omagh Academy took place at the Lisburn School with a large contingent of spectators who were not to be disappointed in the display of rugby on show from both sides.
The game was of a standard of a Cup Final with both sides playing at full capacity hoping to get the edge over the other or find the break down in defence.
Friends dominated the play in the opening 10 minutes resulting in their outside half slotting over a penalty putting them in the lead at 3 -0.
The game remained at this score for the rest of the half but this showed the commitment by both sides to not making any mistakes.
Friends did dominate the play with good possession and territory but just were unable to unlock the bigger Omagh Academy defence and on a number of occasions Omagh turned over the ball on their own 5 metre line and kicked long well into Friends 22 which was excellent awareness by the Omagh fullback.
The second half was as fast as the first with both sides showing commitment in the tackle area and Friends would have taken the edge in this area as they were physically the smaller side.
With 10 minutes to go a Friends player was deemed to have come in from the side of a ruck under the Friends posts and this resulted in Omagh slotting over 3 points making the score even.
Omagh threw everything at Friends who just went into defence mode, but the standard of rugby did not deteriorate from either side although Omagh attacking play became more forward orientated.
In the last minute of play Omagh won a line out on the Friends 5 metre line which they won and mauled over the line but heroic defence held the player up for a last play 5 metre scrum, the Omagh 8 picked and went to be tackled by the Friends open side flanker, Omagh off loaded to their powerful 10 who headed for the line only to be well tackled by his opposite number and lost control of the ball ending the game.
A very exciting and skillful game to watch no matter which side you were supporting, the low score line did not reflect the lack of intensity or skills from both teams.
Both side had played each other earlier in the season with Friends being the victors by one point so the Medallion Shield return fixture at Omagh will be another interesting game, date to be confirmed.
