Lurgan Rugby Club’s senior section are just back from a very successful tour to the heartland of English rugby in Leicester. REPORT + SHOTS LIVE HERE

Lurgan Rugby Club’s senior section are just back from a very successful tour to the heartland of English rugby in Leicester.

The large touring party flew out on the early hours of last Friday morning. The touring party was a mixture of youth and experience and were joined by a number of players who have previously played for Lurgan who are now working or living in England and Scotland. It was great to see these past players such as Alex Weatherall, Alistair Gough, Simon Whittaker and Adam Ferman.

With the original plan being for two matches Lurgan’s past players had also brought a couple of their current clubs players down with them. These were James Wheldon, Kevin Greathead and Mark Fitzsimmons who all play for Mellish RFC in Nottingham. The team hosting Lurgan were Belgrave Rugby Club who were founded in 1883 which is only 3 years after Lurgan Rugby Club was founded.

The similarities did not end there as they also have a similar size of membership and a cricket section. Bill Walter is a previous member of Belgrave RFC before joining Lurgan RFC as a playing member. Bill was kind enough to arrange this fixture and to also provide significant prizes for a raffle carried out by the Club as fund raisers for the tour. Belgrave RFC have just won their league two weeks ago so were in high spirits and eagerly anticipating Lurgan’s arrival.

Unfortunately Belgrave were unable to field an over 35’s team at the last moment so it was decided to use rolling subs to ensure that everyone in Lurgan’s large touring party got a game. Lurgan’s last senior rugby tour was several years ago to Sweden which was organised by another past player of the Club, David Taylor.

The weather forecast had not been good but for once the forecast was completely wrong with the entire few days totally bathed in strong sunshine. If Belgrave thought that the Tourists would not be committed to a hard and fast game of rugby this notion was quickly dispelled by Lurgan’s Touring Team

First Half

Lurgan’s statement of intent was clearly made at the second scrum when Belgrave were pushed back a full 20 metres. This dominance in the pack through this element of the game was to be maintained throughout the match.

The line outs were evenly contested with each side having to be content at securing it’s own ball.

The two teams were evenly matched with Belgrave maybe shading it with their counter rucking.

Lurgan were in no mood to compromise with Jack Wilson, Paul Heasley and Andi Stevenson putting in a number of big hits.

The referee was starting to interpret Lurgan’s counter rucking as illegal and this ended with young Andi Stevenson, playing at full back being sin binned for 10 minutes for killing the ball.

On the 31^st minute Belgrave counter rucked and stole Lurgan’s ball. The Belgrave back rows combined well with their centre pairings who managed to put their number 10 in close to the posts.

The try was converted by the same player and Lurgan were 7 points down.

This appeared to be a wake up call to Lurgan who then started committing more players to the breakdown which closed off Belgraves opportunities for counter rucking and stealing ball.

Lurgan almost crossed the line three times in the last 9 minutes of the first half with Stephen Nolan, Paul Heasley and Chris Walmsley all going close.

Half Time

The score was 7 – 0 at half time such was the competitive of the match

Second Half

Lurgan rotated their squad at half time and brought on some fresh legs.

Alex Weatherall and Alistair Gough made an immediate impact in the loose and in the forward play and James Weldon was excellent in the line outs and around every inch of the park.

Lurgan got a scrum on the 63^rd minute inside the Belgrave 22. Lurgan pushed Belgrave for around 5 metres towards their line. Dylan Gill picked the ball up from the base of the scrum and fed Paul Heasley. Stephen Nolan looped around seeing the move was on and went in for what Lurgan believed to be a try. The celebrations were short lived as the referee would not award the try and brought the play back for Belgrave’s collapsing of the scrum.

The scrum was reset and again Lurgan’s destructive power was unleashed.

Again Dylan Gill playing at scrum half picked up the ball and with some slick handling from the backs led to Pete Robinson crashing over from 5 metres out.

It was game back on as Stephen Nolan converted the try to bring the score level at 7 – 7.

Both teams lifted the pace for the last 15 minutes with both sides going close on a few occasions.

The score was still tied on 80 minutes but the ball was not dead.

Belgrave used decoy runners to good effect and switched the play to finish scoring in the corner.

The conversation was missed and the final score ended with a Belgrave win of 12 – 7

There were so many positives to be taken from this performance and indeed from the tour in it’s totality.

First tour in several years, a great response and a great amount of players went on the tour, all of the players who wore the jersey did the club proud on and off the pitch.

Summary

Belgrave were great hosts and provided a meal and entertainment after the match and were even gracious enough to allow Lurgan to have their “Court Session” in their club house.

Andy Macky, Club Captain presented Belgrave’s President with a Lurgan Club Plaque and club ties.

New friends were made, old bonds reinforced and the club is looking forward to a bright future.

Belgrave have asked to be facilitated by Lurgan in a forth coming reciprocal tour.

It is a well known fact that a club and teams that play together, stay together and win together. This will be Lurgan’s mantra going forward.

So successful was the tour that a Touring Committee will be formed in the coming weeks to take on a more exotic destination for next years tour….rumour has it that Prague is on the radar.

CLICK HERE for tour shots

Lurgan RFC on Tour