Lord Carson displayed a distinct lack of foresight when he organised the signing of the Ulster Covenant during the rugby season. This year’s 100th anniversary brought traffic chaos to East Belfast and meant that many Grosvenor players missed the pre-match warm up at Dungannon.
This lack of preparation was evident in the opening minutes of this Junior Cup clash when Dungannon were able to burst through some weak tackling to score a try under the posts. 7-0. To their credit Grosvenor worked their way back into the game and despite playing into a strong wind, most of the play was in the ‘Gannon half. Up front the forwards coped admirably against a massive ‘Gannon pack, securing their scrums and winning a procession of slick line-out ball. However the Grosvenor backs were unable to break through the ‘Gannon defensive lines and were prone to kicking away posession. When they did keep the ball in the hands they looked very dangerous and wingers Mark Atkinson and Jim Neill both had great breaks making deep incursions into ‘Gannon territory.
From one such break Matthew Sunerton looked to have scored a try but was called back for foot in touch by the ‘Gannon touch judge. With two minutes of the half remaining the score was 7-0 and Grosvenor may have been guilty of clock watching. ‘Gannon made a concerted break and scored a disputed try from a cross field kick, as Jim Neill was clearly impeded as he tried to gather the loose ball. In injury time ‘Gannon mounted another attack and scored under the posts to leave the score at 19-0 and the challenge for Grosvenor suddenly took on a very different perspective .
Grosvenor were penalised at the restart and ‘Gannon extended their lead to 22-0 but they did not let their heads go down and instead upped their game. This lead to a great try for Jamie Meaklim following a scrum in the ‘Gannon 22. This was followed by a rather jammy try for Jim Neill who got a fortunate bounce follwing a chip to the corner. With the score now at 22-10 and with Grosvenor now getting the upper hand a nervousness crept into the ‘Gannon ranks, which manifested itself in some rough house tactics that brought a yellow card for their second row. However Grosvenor could not capitalise on the extra man advantage and instead allowed ‘Gannon to score another try in the corner which effectively killed the match off as a contest. Grosvenor did have the last word with the best try of the match. From a scrum in half-way Cahoon made a great break at No.8 and passed inside to Stoops who sprinted in under the posts. Final score 27-17.
A mixed performance by Grosvenor who coped admirably up front but made too many wrong decisioins in the backs and that lapse in concentration in the last few minutes of the first half gave them a mountain to climb in the second period.
The stand out players were Cahoon, Stoops and Sunerton in the back row but Grosvenor man-of-the-match goes to James Bowman who never took a backward step all day and was at the heart of a great all round performance by the pack.
Jug Watch – Dungannon set a new standard for hospitality yesterday. Not only did the players enjoy a slap up feed and a jug afterwards but President George Gallagher and his colleagues gave the Grosvenor alicadoos what can only be described as VIP treatment both before and after the game. Simply superb.
Click HERE for Club Excellence awards report & more action shots from this game
