Randalstown 1st XV 25 PSNI 1st XV 13
The first outing in the league this year for Randalstown 1sts was always going to be a tight encounter and indeed PSNI had the advantage in the early stages going ahead 10 – 6.
Gradually though ‘Town got into their stride and encouraged by a large home crowd Neil Foster made a great break up the middle of the park. He was well supported by Wilson who gained further ground before wisely going wide and McGarry made it over the line only to have the score disallowed for crossing.
Minutes later young McWhirter, playing out of position in the centre, ran in and Wilson converted to change the lead in favour of the home side. PSNI drew level again with a penalty but on the stroke of half-time McWhirter had the pace to get around the visiting defence and score under the posts allowing Wilson an easy conversion to give ‘Town a half time cushion of 7 points.
The only score of the second half came from Ryan McGarry. McWhirter crossed for what would have been his hat-trick but again the ref disallowed the try, a decision which baffled the fairly partisan crowd.
Coach Stevenson was pleased with the victory and by the huge effort put in by the entire team. When pressed he nominated David Millar as his man of the match in the pack and young McWhirter as the pick of the back line.
Next week the firsts travel to Ophir in the Gordon West cup.
Team: C Coulter B Winter P Lavery P McWhirter R McGarry R Wilson J O’Kane D Millar S Finlay N Foster (Capt) M Allen J Millar G Hume D Wilson G Henry
CIYMS 3rd XV 12 Randalstown 2nd XV 21
The seconds travelled to CIYMS and came out on top in a scrappy game, winning by 21 – 12. Despite 6 changes in personnel from the previous match ‘Town started well, but as was to be a feature of the game they failed to convert pressure into points, falling foul of the referee on several occasions.
Against the run of play the home side took the lead midway through the first half. The ‘Town defence failed to clear a long kick and with fullback Adie Johnston isolated CI turned over ball and tumbled over the line.
Shortly afterwards Turner converted a penalty chance to keep the visitors in touch.
Randalstown started the second half strongly with Moon, Hurrell and Choi all to the fore making good ground with strong running. Again however they were unable to string sufficient phases together to really dominate the opposition and the game continued to be disjointed and the scoreboard untroubled.
Salvation came initially in the form of Liam Hurrell who broke from the base of the scrum just inside the opposition 22 and fed scrum half Maguire. He showed some nifty footwork to jink his way through the defence and touch down. Turner added the conversion.
This spurred the homeside into a spell of pressure which eventually resulted in them piling over from a short penalty for a converted try to regain the lead.
‘Town’s discipline then collapsed as they had 2 players sinbinned within minutes of each other. Those left on the field really knuckled down and prevented CI from adding to their tally. Winger Sloane and Johnston in particular put in last ditch tackles to thwart scoring chances.
Fully restored for the final 15 minutes Randalstown put together their best passage of play. A rampaging run from Pedlow led to a penalty which Turner knocked over and minutes later he added a further 3 points to stretch the ‘Town lead.
In the dying minutes Hurrell collected a drop out in his own 22 and having stepped round a couple of tackles he off-loaded to Hodges. The lanky 2nd row, who battled through most of the game with a damaged shoulder, took off down the wing outstripping the home defence for a fine score.
The back row of Hurrell, Harris and Ings put in an industrious afternoon, and Maguire was manager Sloane’s pick of the back line.
Next Saturday the 2nds are at home to Ballymoney 4th XV which will be a tight encounter. As usual all support is most welcome.
Team: A Johnston A Sloane B Choi S Moon R Duncan M Turner S Maguire B Hamilton G Sloane J Pedlow N Hodges S Hyndman (Capt) D Harris R Ings L Hurrell
Randalstown 3rd XV 13 Malone 4th XV 26
In the 3’s first outing of the season this was very much a game of two halves as they managed to turn victory into defeat.
Randalstown started the match with arguably the strongest pack since their reformation and it showed in the first half as they dominated all the forward exchanges. After battering the Malone line they were awarded a penalty in front of the post which was duly converted by full back Service.
Randalstown continued to press and when a McConnon rampage was stopped just yards short of the line centre Asquith was quickly in support to pick up and squeeze through the narrowest of gaps to dot down on the line. Service converted to leave the score 10-0.
Malone finally managed to get into the Town half and indiscipline saw them concede a penalty in front of the posts which the visitors converted. They returned the favour however minutes later to give Service an easy 3 points extending the town lead to 13-3.
As half time approached Malone moved the ball across the backline inside Towns 22 and they sneaked over for an unconverted try even though they appeared to drop the ball forward.
In the second half Town imploded when under pressure on their own line they spilled the ball allowing Malone to pounce and tie the score at 13-13.
It seemed as though numerous Malone infringements were going unpunished at this stage and they took full advantage scoring a penalty and 2 more unconverted tries.
Manager McCann while disappointed with the result was happy that there is plenty of potential in this team to do well this season and is looking forward to travelling to Bangor next week.
Team :- A Service, E Leung, D Asquith, T McMaster, A Adair, J Scott, B Cathcart, M Hamilton, A McClenaghan, T Devlin, T McCann, A Goodfellow, F McConnon, P McLean, G Douglas.
