HOLYWOOD WIN EASILY
On a day when the weather decreed that it would have been a great time to have been a duck Holywood entertained Londonderry YM in the league. To say that conditions were testing would be a gross understatement of the facts but nevertheless Holywood served up a feast of rugby that kept the crowd well entertained. Indeed the crowd were disappointed when the ref blew the game up 17 minutes early with Holywood leading 44 – 0 and running through their full gambit of moves, despite the inclement conditions.
Holywood kicked off into the wind and rain in the knowledge that any possession given away would result in a kick from the opposition and the forwards having to trudge 70 odd metres back towards their own goal line. The simplest method to defend against such a scenario occurring is to attack and keep possession of the ball. The fall back of swamping the opposition backs whenever possession was lost didn’t really feature much at the start of the game as Holywood went on all out attack.
Londonderry YM never had a chance to clear their lines and after 10 minutes Josh Burnside opened the scoring for Holywood with a penalty to give his side a 3 – 0 lead. With the visitors unable to hold on to the ball for any lengthy period of time it only took Holywood another 5 minutes before the scoreboard ticked over again. This time pressure in midfield from a Londonderry YM scrum led to the out half dropping the ball. Richard Saville had been pressing hard and hacked the ball through. The ball ricocheted over an opposition player and Gareth Hillen made a despairing attempt to secure the ball before lunging goalkeeper style to catch the ball before it hit the ground. An offload to Stephen Glover was followed by a ruck and a sweet pass out to the supporting Richard Saville who scuttled over in the corner for his, and the team’s, first try of the afternoon. The virtually impossible conversion was missed but Holywood had secured an 8 – 0 lead.
Three minutes later and Holywood were back attacking the opposition line. This time, just as the Londonderry YM kicker was going for the safety of touch, up popped Josh Burnside and the Holywood back row to disabuse him of any such notion! In the play that followed Holywood were awarded a scrum as the side going forward and seconds later the ref awarded Holywood a full penalty following an indiscretion by a visitor at the ruck. Josh Burnside converted the chance and Holywood were now 11 – 0 in front.
By now Londonderry YM were reeling as they had all the elements in their favour but had not been allowed by Holywood to make any use of the advantage. Any time the ball was kicked down the park wingers Richie McRoberts and Stephen Christie linked up well with fullback Jamie White to run the ball back with a bit of interest. On such a run, as half time approached, Richie McRoberts darted up the right wing and his kick ahead was bundled into touch by his opposite number at the Londonderry YM 22 metre line. Whilst everyone else was either drawing breath or trying to organise things Josh Burnside found Stephen Glover with a quick throw and, whilst Londonderry YM stood and protested, the Holywood skipper scampered in under the posts for a try. His cohort josh Burnside added insult to the Londonderry YM injury by converting to take Holywood into an 18 – 0 lead at the interval.
Having played a running game for the full 40 minutes the team talk at the break was fairly straightforward – more of the same and keep the opposition score to zero. Londonderry YM kicked off with heavy hearts as they knew that they had failed to get anything out of a first half where everything had been in their favour and they were now facing another 40 minutes on the receiving end of a rampant home side.
Barely two minutes were on the clock when their worst fears came to fruition. Holywood won turnover ball just inside their own half and when the ball was moved across their back line Jamie White burst into the line just over halfway and weaved his way through a number of attempts to either catch him or tackle him to score. Josh Burnside was unable to add to the 23 – 0 lead with the conversion.
A few minutes later and Holywood showed themselves to be clearly in the ascendancy with a drive that took play just short of the Londonderry YM line. Holywood’s front five of Craig Moore, Campbell Stewart, Jason Sargent, Ben Simpson and the returning Johnny Elliott had outplayed and out muscled their opposite numbers throughout the game that had provided good quick ball for the backs to capitalise on. Whenever the ref gave Holywood a penalty for an infringement at the ruck quick-thinking
Josh Burnside took it quickly and fed the supporting Gareth Hillen who darted under the posts for a try. The simple conversion was completed by Josh Burnside and Holywood were disappearing out of sight at 30 – 0.
It was only five minutes later that the exact same thing happened again only this time it was Jason Sargent who was the recipient of the quick tap penalty and when he scored and Josh Burnside converted Holywood were home and hosed at 37 – 0.
Holywood still weren’t finished and when an attempt at a Londonderry YM attack finished with a kick over Richie McRoberts’ head the visitors might have expected some respite or time in their opponent’s half. Holywood had different ideas! Richie McRoberts gathered up the kick inside his own 22 and set sail for Londonderry YM territory. He was eventually dragged down just short of his target but quickly recycled ball put Richard Saville in the clear and he outstripped the defence to touch down under the posts for his second try of the afternoon. Josh Burnside converted and with the score at 44 – 0 the referee had seen enough and brought proceedings to an end 17 minutes early.
To be fair to Londonderry YM, they were somewhat shell shocked because having taken points off Holywood at their home pitch at the beginning of the season they probably felt that the game would have been a lot closer than it was. This wasn’t just a different Holywood side that they were facing, in terms of personnel, but also an entirely different side in terms of how they executed a game plan. It may seem churlish to suggest that there is room for improvement but the team cannot afford to sit back and admire their exploits because there is still a lot to be played for in the future. On a day when there were quite a few candidates, the Foster and Sons Man of the Match went to the ever busy Stephen Glover. The Man of Steel award went to Craig Moore who carried and offloaded the ball well and had perhaps his best match in a Holywood shirt. The award that no one wants went to Dave Perry, not because of having done anything stupid like his centre partner Ross Jackson the previous week, but simply because he had the feeling that he was going to get it. Only he knows what he must have done to deserve it!
