Change is to be expected in a support team and this week saw plenty of that as the senior squad needed to backfill for a vital home fixture against Seapoint. So when the mighty 2s took the pitch we had two hookers, five flankers, two full backs and a few boys stepping up from the 3s, sadly we didn’t have a 9 or a 10 either so some juggling was required.
Mini Mairs already a 2s warrior stepped into the tighthead role while “beat you” Epi Ratu volunteered to put on the 9 shirt normally reserved for our very own Nico Andress (back on the 1st XV again). Parky coming back from injury stepped into the ten shirt and Rory Sheard left his mighty pack to be a centre for the day only because he didn’t fancy front row!
for 9 Pictures CLICK HERE
As always the banter before was in good spirits and the warm up didn’t quite have the usual Leacockness to it but this team doesn’t need support just an opposition.
The game started brightly and despite the re-jigging we got a better start than the Holywood boys and took early ownership of the game. Holywood 1st XV had come to Shaw’s Bridge as top of the tables (Conf & Qually 4) and therefore keen to extent their lead over a 2nd XV side not far behind them in the conference league. After ten minutes the Inst pace and pressure led to a penalty in range but no golden boots McGuigan to slot it due to his 1st XV debut on the pitch beside. Paddy Irwin stepped up and slotted it without issue to give a deserved 3-0 start. Twenty minutes of a contest continued without score but only due to a few silly errors on our part. Eventually we broke the lack of points with another penalty which Paddy slotted again 6-0 after half an hour.
Mark Hill had been out for some time due to injury and spent a few minutes finding his dancing shoes but from nowhere he broke the line and showed pace he should not be capable of, when the gas ran out chuckles was right on his shoulder to take over the duty before his worst pass of the decade saw the end of the move, any other Saturday that would have been a 7 pointer.
Half time came, still 6-0 with nothing to fear from the visitors who had done very little. The team knew they were only playing in second gear and that knock ons and silly penalties were our only true obstacle. Thankfully Holywood had the same problems and had given away even more penalties than us and failed to take their chances with some interesting kicks at goal.
The second half started exactly as we wanted and an early penalty saw Paddy kick it right into the corner for a 5m line out, Mini threw his dart and the pack blew away the Holywood defence for a rampant push over try by our very own Rab Brown. The kick was not easy from just inside the 5m line but Paddy Beckham Irwin gave it a hoof anyway. The ball looked to be going wide-left before the curl brought it back on target, a glance off the left upright and in, 13-0 and we looked capable of a big score.
Once again we managed to not win over the ref and were penalised every few minutes for questionable decisions so eventually Holywood got their first points in front of the posts for 13-3. Holywood sensed they might be able to mount a come back and stepped it up a gear. The defence was strong and the hits went in, turnover again, Epi showed some of his usual full back magic with a clearance just a few metres from his own line which he caught himself on our ten metre line and the threat was over.
The forwards were simply awesome in the second half every scrum was smashed back 5 metres and Holywood could find no way to stop us. Johnny Johnny and Mini were solid in the front row all day with Nick and Maxi Mairs providing the power. The back row swarmed the breakdown all day and Holywood were left with nothing but bruised forwards. After another super scrum Epi to Parky to Paddy who ran through 4 Holywood boys, carrying the last two on his shoulder to get to within 2 feet of the line and then somehow got his arm outstretched to place the ball just over the line, outstanding play and would have been try of the year but sadly disallowed for no reason any man could understand.
We re-grouped and started the attack again, rampant forward play drew in the Holywood boys and left many of them on their ass. Paddy Irwin saw the space and kicked a high ball to the corner for Chuckles who steamed down the wing gathered above his head and touchdown 18-3 how do like them apples, all forgiven Chuckles. Another tricky kick from out wide for Paddy but the boy did good 20-3 with fifteen to go and all was well. Holywood were struggling in the battle and went to 14 men as did we after Hilly got his first yellow card in many years. The wood sensed they could get something from the game and threw the sink at us to get a consolation prize try 20-10 with only a few minutes on the clock. Mini Mairs had been carrying injury during the yellow card so when Hilly came back on Mini retired to save any further damage being done and the game was already won.
Even with 14 we dominated the game, were awesome in the scrum and contained Holywood in their own 22. Pressure led to a penalty and the wise Captain nominated the posts to slow it down and keep the scoreboard ticking, 23-10 job done.
Man of the match as always is a hard one to call, Johnny Craig showed plenty of fire in the belly with some great ball carrying as did Hilly and his back row. Chuckles showed pace and finishing skills as always but today’s man of the moment has to be Paddy Irwin for the best non-try of the season and some excellent kicking.
The 1s held out to win their match and the double rickety was on, sadly not together but the clubhouse was all Inst nonetheless, a good day at the office.
Peter Steven
Team
1 Johnny Waterson
2 Johnny Craig
3 Michael Mairs
4 Andrew Mairs (C)
5 Nick McMurray
6 Paddy Bell
7 Rab Brown
8 Mark Hill
9 Epi Ratu
10 David Parkhill
11 Zach Welshman
12 Paddy Irwin
13 Rory Sheard
14 Matt Wright
15 Mark Burns
Assistantant Gareth Shortt
