Ophir U17’s can count themselves unlucky to have come up against an Instonian side that, even this early in the season, know they are going to be hard to beat. So it was to prove with Instonians running out comfortable 67-6 winners. Ophir have some big strong, skilful, ball players but they lacked the experience to put Inst under enough sustained pressure to score tries against them.
Inst showed goods skills throughout the match – with a directness and cohesion in their forwards and considerable panache in their hard running backs. After the first few minutes of sparring Ophir found themselves with a defensive scrum well inside their 22, the ball was healed well enough but Andrew Keane, the Instonian scrum-half, was able to disrupt his opposite number, turn over the ball and allow centre Michael Kirvell a clear run to the goal line. A second try followed just a couple of minutes later. Big, second row, Robbie Alexander, picked up from a ruck about 40 metres out and burst for the line. He evaded several, would be tacklers, to go all the way himself and score at the posts. This made it 12-0 after 10 minutes and the pattern of the game was settled.
Johnny Spratt scored the first of his three tries, Andrew Keane sniped one for himself, and hooker Chris McMenamy was well placed to drive over from a ruck close to the line. All Ophir could offer was a well-struck penalty following an Inst offside. This left it 29-3 at half time.
In the second half Inst scored a further six tries through big, new number 8, Calvin Lyness, substitute scrum-half Ben McCune, blind side flanker Brendan McKenna and three more shared between centres Johnny Spratt and Michael Kirvell. Ophir replied with a further penalty just before full-time.
It had been a tough match for Ophir but they did well to stick to task and keep plugging on to the end. It will be interesting to see, if the two sides meet later in the season, what the outcome will be when Ophir get some more experience under their belts. Credit must also go to the referee who kept the match even tempered and allowed the game to keep flowing.
