Omagh Accies U13 s vs Innishowen RFC Saturday 12th November
By David Stewart | Monday 21st November 2011
Saturday morning and Omagh hosted Innishowen on a dry day but the heavy rain of Friday left a wet heavy pitch.
CLICK HERE For U13 XV Pictures
Omagh Accies U13 s vs Innishowen RFC Saturday 12th November
Saturday morning and Omagh hosted Innishowen on a dry day but the heavy rain of Friday left a wet heavy pitch.
Starting brightly with three or four phases of play Omagh quickly had the upper hand finding themselves in the opposition 22. The panicked opposition then strayed offside and Kyle Walker stepped up to convert the penalty or an early lead.
Innishowen forwards then found their stride and used their size superiority to dominate play around the rucks and mauls. Tackling from Omagh was poor with players trying to rip the shirts off the opposition instead of using their shoulders to put them down. A warning from the referee was needed to put a stop to this. Good spoiling play by Philip Ewing and Brian Fury stopped the opposition near their own line ripping the ball back and following a decent clearance kick Omagh found themselves back in the opposition 22. An attacking scrum followed and quick ball found its way out to Jason Adams on the left hand side for a try in the corner and the last score of the half.
The second half started with Innishowen putting up their extra-large battering rams to try and force their way through the Omagh defence. After several missed tackles their number 8 found himself through with only Omagh’s fullback Reese Stewart standing in his way. Reese made no mistake and duly brought him down, however the ball however popped free and with a couple of hacks and a chase Innishowen scored under the Omagh posts.
This was the last opportunity for Innishowen with Omagh then dominating by keeping the ball live and away from the opposition forwards. The backs were awarded very quickly for this expansive play centre Nathan Sides keeping calm in the tackle and stretching out one handed to plant the ball between the posts, presenting Kyle with a straightforward conversion.
From the kick off Omagh again pushing the ball out through the backs again found themselves 5 meters from the try line. In a repeat of last week’s match Dylan Thompson’s run was stopped just short, the ball popped up to Philip Ewing who drove low and hard through the Innishowen defence for a well-deserved try.
Receiving the ball in their 22 from the kick off Omagh moved the ball first out wide right and then back to the left keeping the opposition on the back foot and the ball away from them . Jason Adams then found himself with an open channel on the side from a lost Innishowen scrum. He made full use of this showing everyone a clean pair of heals. This time he had time to make his way beneath the posts for his second try of the day. A third conversion from Kyle Walker brought the game to a close with the final score Omagh 27 Innishowen 7
Omagh were in positive mood before this league game against Inishowen having ended the previous game against Donegal in good style despite the defeat
Omagh U17 (29) v Inishowen (12) November 19, 2011
CLICK HERE FOR U17 XV v Inishowen U17 XV
Omagh were in positive mood before this league game against Inishowen having ended the previous game against Donegal in good style despite the defeat. Unfortunately Inishowen arrived with 10 players and whilst Omagh were happy to claim the points, they would have preferred a competitive fixture. Omagh used their reserves to make a game possible and the match started with 15 a side and phil marshall referee.
Omagh started well and the benefits of forwards coach Tom McNulty’s session on Wednesdays were obvious as the pack were driving forward and presenting go forward ball. However, following a fortuitous hack through by Inishowen an Omagh defender made a tackle without the player having the ball, resulting in the award of a penalty try. This was converted to make it 7-0 to the visitors.
Omagh to their credit bounced back and recently appointed ‘pack leader’ Tom McNulty Jr, was living up to is responsibilities by being everywhere in the loose – it was a close call between him and hooker Gary Hunter as to who was the stand out forward on the day. Hunter doing a lot of unseen graft in the rucks as well as some surges forward with the ball in hand. Now deep into the Inishowen ‘22’ scrumhalf Eoin Murnaghan sold a great dummy before the ball was transferred through several pairs of hands, including prop gareth murphy who put freddie mcdowell in for a try in the corner. Flyhalf James Hemphill missed a difficult conversion but for the remainder of the game looked calm and composed with some excellent decision making.
After the restart, wing Ryan Stewart made a tremendous 50m run before offloading to McDowell to take play deep into the opposing ‘22’. From the next phase lock James Shortt crashed over to score a goo try converted by Hemphill 12-5 to Omagh. Inishowen were under pressure but almost scored again against the run of play only for Stewart Craig’s last ditch tackle on the visitor’s winger. Another attack was repelled by James Hemphill who made a double tackle to win possession for Omagh.
The last play of the half rounded off a great performance from Ryan Stewart who again showed electric pace down the wing to score from 40 meters out beating several defenders. Omagh 19 Inishowen 5.
The game restarted with Omagh still on top and winger James Wilson showed real pace to run in a try from 60 m – the young backs are starting to show real potential.
The conversion was slotted by Hemphill to make it 24-5.
Centres mark devenney and Joshua Ellis started to run straight and powerful lines and some excellent tackles were made by Gary Hunter, freddie mcdowell and stewart craig. Devenney made about 40 metres with several would be tacklers hanging on to him an gavin mcilwaine showed his class (albeit helping the opposition) with a mazy run before score popping the ball off as Inishowen scored a consolation try to make the final score Omagh 29 Inishowen 12.
Despite the disappointing effort by Inishowen in fielding 10 players Omagh played well and have come on a lot for the recent hard work in training.
Omagh Team:
Jordan Hetherington, Gary Hunter, gareth murphy, James Short, Brannagh McCabe, freddie mcdowell, kyle arnold, Tom McNulty, Eoin Murnaghan, James Hemphill, stewart craig, Joshua Ellis, mark devenney, gavin mcilwaine, Dylan Flanagan, Ryan Stewart, Jamie Walsh, James Wilson, Jason Donnell
