Omagh 2’s 29 – Banbridge 3’s 0
Omagh Accies seconds continued their bright start to the season with a convincing 29-0 victory at home against newly promoted Banbridge 3’s.
The visiting team were quick to try to exert authority over the match with their larger pack, but the Omagh forwards were more than a match for what they could offer, and the home side were rewarded with their first score of the game no more than 10 minutes in, after a line out move straight from the training ground allowed Omagh to catch and drive 15 yards before Porter broke off and dived over to score.
More of the same was to follow five minutes later when Porter scored a carbon copy of his first try, and after this the home side were able to control the flow of the game, with the Omagh backs getting to stretch their legs.
Omagh’s third try came after some good rucking from Pollock and Alexander allowed the quick thinking outhalf Ward, to slip a kick between the rushing Banbridge defence from 25 yards out, for centre O’Neill to chase down and dive on the ball to score his 2nd try in 2 weeks, but got soaked from head to toe for his troubles much to the amusement of the other supporting winger Irwin who ironically managed to stay relatively clean and dry in comparison for the duration of the game.
Stuart Lyons, playing in his last game before travelling to New Zealand, was making good ground off the scrums playing at number 8, and was unfortunate to have his score disallowed shortly before half time after the ref penalised him for double movement.
The home side started the second half leading 17-0, and were keen not to repeat the mistakes from the previous week by conceding early, so determined defence from all 15 Omagh players ensured that Banbridge were shut out as they pressed to get back into the match. Omagh were then able to add a superb score 15 minutes into the 2nd half when, after another excellent linout catch by Knox, who along with Moffit had dominated the lineouts from start to finish, set up quick ball for the scrum half to feed Ward, who after a smart interchange of passes with McKelvey, passed to O’Neill, showing quick hands to pop to Campbell who threw a miss pass to release supporting full back Givens to charge unopposed to the line to score.
At this stage of the game, the visitors were beginning to struggle with some injuries, and the Omagh forwards were able to capitalise on this through a line out, when Monteith continued his great throwing, and set up yet another unstoppable maul to drive to this line, this time for Stephen Lyons to set the ball down to make the score 27-0, before Ward slotted over the conversion to bring the final score to 29-0.
Omagh 2’s will hope to keep this run of good form going next week as they travel for a difficult fixture away to Coleraine.
Team: K Alexander, S Monteith, S Lyons, L Pollock, S Moffit, A Knox, D Porter, S Lyons, J Armstrong, D Ward, J Irwin, M McKelvey, R O’Neill, P Campbell, K Givens
Match Overview – By Event
’10 Dean Porter
’15 Dean Porter
’25 David Ward
’25 Ryan O’Neil
’60 Keith Givens
’70 David Ward
’70 Stephen Lyons
Match Overview – By Player
. Ryan O’Neil (’25)
. Peter Campbell
. Simon Monteith
. Stephen Lyons (’70)
. Stuart Lyons
. Stephen Moffit
. Mark McKelvey
. Lee Pollock
. Dean Porter (’10, ’15)
. David Ward (’25, ’70)
. James Irwin
. Jason Armstrong
. Kyle Alexander
. Keith Givens (’60)
. Alan Knox
By Jason Armstrong
