Last Saturday saw Holywood take on PSNI at Kerr Park in the last of their round-robin Gordon West Cup ties. Having already won their first two games in the 3 match series Holywood knew that a draw, at worst, would be enough to see them through as winners of their section. In the event working out where they would finish in their section, depending on the other result of the game between Civil Service and Lurgan, was to be an academic exercise as the match was abandoned 12 minutes into the second half when referee Stephen McConkey pulled up with a muscle injury to his right calf.
Holywood were leading 5 – 0 at the time so the touchline pundits were full of wisdom as to the ruling regarding the game with rules from European and Premiership football matches being bandied about as setting precedents! In his post match interview the ref made it quite clear that he would be putting his match report into the Ulster Branch as usual and it would be up to the Branch to decide what should be done about the match having to be abandoned. Simple as that, despite all the barrack room lawyers chewing over the matter in the bar afterwards!
PSNI kicked the game off on a wet, cold and thoroughly miserable afternoon for the decent crowd that had come to see if Holywood could keep up their unbeaten start to the season. The elements, coupled with a ball that must have felt as grippy as a bar of soap to the players, meant that the game would be littered with dropped balls and knock-ons that interrupted any chance the game had of being an open and flowing affair. Holywood have become a team that likes to play an open type of game based on a strong performance from its pack so the weather was obviously a handicap to the home side in their search for a win and the points.
Play for the first ten minutes of the game was played out in and around the half way line with neither side able to get neither a grip on the game nor a lengthy period of possession. On the 13 minute mark Holywood showed their supporters the quality of the rugby they can play when both forwards and backs interpassing to drive play from their own 22 metre line up to the 10 metre line of PSNI. Such was the fluidity of the movement that PSNI were only able to stop it illegally when their centre charged Ivan DePledge without bothering to make a tackle. The ref showed the centre a yellow card which would give him ten minutes to watch what a proper tackle really looked like!
The resultant penalty was well within kicking range but skipper Stevie Glover chose instead to ask Stevie Leyland to kick for touch and drive play down to within 10 metres of the PSNI line. Cormac Smyth threw a great lineout ball to Matt Mullan who secured clean ball that let the pack drive for the try. Short drives by Johnny Elliott, Ivan Depledge and Gary Stocker left a gap on the blind side that was exploited by Gareth Hillen who darted in from 5 metres out to score the try. In the atrocious conditions he was unable to add the conversion to his own score as the ball drifted wide on the wind but at 5 – 0 Holywood had their noses in front.
Play ebbed and flowed up and down the pitch from the restart but Holywood were always in command and only allowed PSNI to have relief from their attacks whenever indiscipline at the rucks and mauls caught players offside. PSNI were thankful for the penalties to take play out of their half and into Holywood’s. PSNI were trying to catch Holywood’s defence out by kicking long and over the heads of the home side’s wingers. Both Jamie White and Mike Silvester were more than up to the task and were keen to catch and run the ball back with some purpose.
With six minutes plus injury time of the first half remaining PSNI were awarded yet another penalty for an offence at the breakdown as lazy Holywood players joined the ruck via the side door as opposed to going in from the back or not going in at all and lining up in defence. 15 seconds later after a quick tap and go from the visitor’s scrumhalf Holywood repeated the offence with the same result – another penalty! This time PSNI elected for a scrum and with quick ball opted to move possession wide. What followed was a non-stop hammering of the Holywood line as attack after attack was launched by PSNI. The visitors tried the pack to muscle their way over and tried to pass their way over the line. Many another side would have crumbled under the kind of onslaught that Holywood had to withstand, but not this team. Time and again they drove PSNI back from the line, tackled like their lives depended on it but, most importantly, they worked as a team to keep a clean sheet on the scoreboard.
Half time arrived whenever PSNI’s last desperate attempt to score came unstuck because of a double movement spotted by the ref as they tried to breach Holywood’s line. A 5 – 0 lead was certainly well deserved by Holywood and the half time team talk was short – more of the same and cut out the penalties.
With the words of advice still ringing in their ears Holywood kicked off the second half and immediately went on the attack. One minute into the half Holywood’s attacks were cut short whenever Stevie Leyland was clotheslined by his opposite number and it was quite some time before he was back on his feet. To the bewilderment of everyone the ref did not bin the offender but chose instead to give him a warning. For such a blatant act the sentence hardly matched the crime!
With Holywood in the ascendancy and on the attack it was disappointing when the ref pulled up with an unfortunate calf injury but stranger things have happened in a game! No ref meant that the game had to finish immediately. The crowd were left a bit disappointed because it was clear that Holywood’s superior fitness and strength were beginning to tell in the game. Having dominated the scrum against a bigger pack it was no accident that man-of –the-match went to prop Craig Moore who had an outstanding game in both the set and the loose.
Time will tell whether Holywood are awarded the points or not but no matter what happens the team can take heart from maintaining their unbeaten tag. If they can cut out the penalties then they will fear no team this season.
