LISBURN RFC WIN AWAY FROM HOME
BHSFP 1st XV 6 – LISBURN 1st XV 16
The Corus sponsored Lisburn 1st XV travelled to Greenisland last Saturday and came away with their first points of the season while at the same time denying Belfast High School FP any bonus points on offer. This is the first season that the bonus point system has been introduced to Qualifying League 2 and the Lisburn management team will be watching it with interest. In perfect conditions, though with a swirling breeze in their face for the opening period, Lisburn opened rather tentatively and the wound up home team took the game to them with a full frontal assault.
201 Photos on slideshow of Lisburn RFC v BHSFP, courtesy of Tom Porter Photography. CLISK HERE. Should anyone require a high resolution image simply contact Tom on 07740 676076
Their slightly bigger pack gave them useful possession in that frenetic opening period and High School opened the scoring with a simple penalty on seven minutes. The Former Pupils team continued to press during the first quarter but the time that Lisburn have spent under the guidance of coaches Bruce Cornelius and Mark Crowe in perfecting their defensive network stood to them well during this period of pressure and on twenty minutes the Lisburn back line at last received some ball in space and they broke to the home 22 where an infringement by High School gave full back Richard Dawson the opportunity to even the scores with a well struck penalty. Three points each.
However, High School came right back and took the lead again with another penalty to make it 6-3. Lisburn now started to come more into the game and their meaty front row of Jefferson, Ferguson and Dickson, all props, were putting their opponents under a lot of pressure in the scrums. Unfortunately, during this first period the line outs were not working very well where the breeze blew a lot of throws off course. Coming up to the half time whistle, Lisburn again put the home team under a lot of pressure with strong running from open play and winger Simon Gardiner was nicely placed to run in the score and make it 6 points to 8 at the interval.
It was quite obvious that with the wind now at their back, Lisburn should make every use of it and outhalf Ally Finlay put on a master class of lengthy kicking to bring the visitors regularly into attacking territory. Scrum half Nicky Craig also regularly moved the ball out to their three quarter line where centres Andrew Gibb and Richard Kindred made occasional holes in the High School defence. However, Lisburn were often being dragged into ruck and maul situations by the rugged High School pack and sometimes failed to play to their strengths by increasing the pace of the game. This was in the contrast to the game against Dungannon the previous week where that fast flowing game saw Lisburn at their best. In any case, at the end of the third quarter the visitors were rewarded for their continuous pressure with another Dawson penalty to extend the lead to 6-11. On thirty minutes Lisburn scored what was probably the best score of the game when Andrew Gibb gained possession on the 22 metre line, ghosted through a half break and then off loaded to supporting flanker Sam McCourt who used his strength and speed to crash over. 6-16 to Lisburn.
Belfast High School FP tried to rescue the game in the closing minutes but the strong Lisburn defence kept them under control with great work from the back row of Chris Kidd, playing at No 8 for the injured Andy Hamilton and Tommy Thompson, the promoted 2nd XV Captain, standing in for the injured Adrian Daley. Open side flanker Sam McCourt was awarded the “Alicadoos” Man of the Match award for his try and also his work rate around the park.
Next Saturday the First XV return to Blaris where they take on an expectant CIYMS in the league. The 2nd XV also host their CIYMS counterparts in what should be great day of rugby for the Lisburn supporters. Lisburn’s 4th XV travel to play Shorts while Lisburn’s 3rd XV’s will already have played Instonians 4th XV’s under floodlights on the Wednesday evening.
Match Report To Follow.
