A cold, crisp afternoon at Coleraine, saw the Perennials deliver a feast of tries in a highly entertaining match, in front of a large enthusiastic crowd.
Coleraine’s chosen charity for the day, Marie Curie benefited from the proceeds from the sale of hot ports and mulled wine and a game of heads and tails after the m,atch raised a further £460 which the Perennials rounded up to £500.
CLICK HERE for the SHOTTSSS “!”
Disclaimer:
Some photos needed edited/censored in case the players actions cause distress or embarrassment.
Action shots of some of the players are no reflection of the standard of rugby they aspired to at the peak of their career.
The Armstrong clan turned out in full force to continue Ashley’s 60th birthday celebrations, with son Ricky making his debut for Perennials. The bad news is it looked like he had learnt nothing from his father, spreading beautiful passes both left and right, but alas his parentage was confirmed when he threw a bouncer to his ungrateful out-half mid-way through the game. Definitely an Armstrong.
The game started with a bit of ‘hanky-ball-stuff’ from both sides, but soon settled down with Gary Treanor on hand to open the scoring, following a fine run from Michael Higginson and Michael McAlister adding a second for the Perennials to finish the first quarter two tries up.
Two more quick tries, one for captain Stewart Porter and a second try for Michael McAlister, put the Perennials in a commanding 4-0 lead, but Coleraine replied with a quickly taken tap penalty to reduce the deficit. A further try from our Captain Stewart Porter gave the Perennials a 5 -1 lead at half time.
The second half started with the best try of the day. Some wonderful rugby from our own line started by Derek McKay, say the ball go through numerous pairs of hands, before Michael Higginson touched down. Michael McAlister completed his hat trick after some great handling involving Peter Sandford and Derek McKay, with Don Thompson adding a further score to finish of the quarter.
The final quarter saw Coleraine add a further try, cancelled out by our captain Stewart Porter completing his hat trick, after a fine break from Davy Wilson. Michael McAlister ran in for his fourth try, followed by another try from our hosts, with the final try being a penalty try, after Davy Wilson was taken out chasing his own grubber ahead, for what would have been a certain try.
This concluded the scoring leaving the Perennials winners by 11 tries to 3.
Celebrations continued in the clubhouse, where a great cheer greeted the final whistle in the Italy v France match, before a first class meal and hospitality, the usual speeches, tie swapping party songs etc brought a great weekend to a close.
A big thanks to Coleraine President, Mark Pyper, and Coleraine Perennial Davy Barbour for putting on a great day; a fixture definitely to be repeated next season.
