by Ron Bell
Last Saturday Ophir Firsts, supported by Biffa and MCW Properties, crossed town to Stormont to meet Civil Service
in their next challenge of the Kukri Qualifying league Section 4. Missing 4 key players, Karl Davis,Kenny Morton, Paddy McCabe and John-Joe Flood through injury or unavailability, this could have been a stiff test for the Cottonmount men, but in the end it was a relatively easy romp to another victory.
In weather conditions which were far from ideal for a rugby match; a howling gale blowing cross pitch and intermittent heavy rain, the first 20 minutes were uninspiring, to say the least. Apart from a cheeky cross kick which the Ophir backs chased too early, and a missed penalty attempt, there was nothing to inspire the chilled supporters. But then Ophir began to use the driving maul to better effect and inching closer to the Civil Service line, veteran Number 8 Neil Gray launched himself over. Full back David Walker converted and 2 minutes later Cillian Rooney, usually at centre but playing back row, wrestled the ball clear and set off on a jinking 40 metre run to set up David Walker for a spectacular try. Probably exhausted, Walker missed his conversion. But shortly after it was 19-0 when Walker converted hooker Jonny Murphy’s try. Civil Service were unlucky not to get on the scoreboard when their centre got clear on a 40m run but handling errors let them down. And that was punished by another Ophir try, this time from out half James Milligan. Then David Walkergrabbed his second try of the match, finishing off a classic rugby move across the whole back line. Half time: Civil Service 0, Ophir 29.
The second half reflected the first with Ophir applying all the pressure to the hard pressed Civil Service defence. Neil Gray took the ball from the base of a driving maul to crash over the line andJames Milligan broke clear to touch down his second try and put Ophir 43 points ahead. After some fantastic interchange between Gray and David Lucas, centre Anthony Davis scored under the posts in another of his charging runs. Service were looking in a sorry state, not helped by two of their players being off injured. And the misery was compounded by Jonny Murphy, who broke from half way to touch down under the posts. David Walker’s conversion took the final score to Civil Service-0, Ophir 57.
Next week Ophir travel to Londonderry YMCA, with their hopes of a first title in many years very much alive.
