City of Derry, U19, 17 – Seahorses U19, 68
Away league game. Conditions: windy, cold with blustery hail showers.
Seahorses travelled to City of Derry with a full coachload of players, coaches and supporters. It was disappointing when they arrived to find that Derry had only 13 players. After some discussion it was agreed to play a 13 aside league fixture with uncontested scrums. This took some adjustment as Seahorses had to omit two of their starting 15 and were deprived of the advantage of their powerful scrummage.
The game was barely one minute old when Seahorses had their first score on the board. Out-half, Michael Davidson, ran well to score at the posts for a try converted by captain, Callum Lyle. Throughout the first half they showed dominance in every aspect of the game. Big number 8, Luke Connolly, showed his strength and athleticism with many mighty surges and good offloads. His efforts were soon rewarded when he crossed for the first of his five tries after 10 minutes. Although his try went unconverted Seahorses were back on the offensive and a period of pressure on the Derry line lead to prop forward, Luke Cope, barging over with an unstoppable run from close quarters. Winger, Kadhum Hasson, was having a field day with the extra space afforded to him and rounded off another try barely a minute later.
There was some tendency for Seahorses to make breaks and then get isolated through lack of support and in that way they made life harder for themselves. Once they got in behind the Derry defence a little more patience would have borne more fruit. At the right time quick ball from the ruck passed with crisp, accurate passing would have led to a bucket load of tries by both wingers. Instead they butchered a number of try scoring opportunities. It is something they will need to work on in training. It is a matter of better decision making and accurate execution.
That said the back row tidied up a lot of scrappy ball and were well rewarded when flanker Adam Spratt helped himself to two tries and Luke Connolly to another in the fifteen minutes before the interval.
The score stood at 39-0 to the Seahorses at the break. It was always going to be difficult to keep up the momentum in the second period. A combination of the disruption coming from making replacements, taking their foot of the pedal knowing that they had a winning lead and Derry’s realisation that there was benefit in keeping the ball in hand rather than kicking it away led to a definite change in momentum in the second half. This time Seahorses had a lot of defending to do. Players started falling off tackles and it was not surprising when Derry scored a well-deserved try after a short spell of pressure. Seahorses hit back with another Luke Connolly try but a lot of fizz had gone out of the Seahorses’ play. Back came Derry to score two more tries, one of which was converted to give a 17-5 advantage after about 25 minutes of the second half. This seemed to shake Seahorses into life again and they dominated the last fifteen minutes of the game. In this period they scored four more tries – two by Luke Connolly, another by fullback, David Quigley, and an amazing one from big second row Andy Duncan. Andy burst clear from well inside his own half and completely outstripped the cover defence to score a dramatic try near the posts. Kadhum Hasson was also very unfortunate to be denied a try when he went on a similar run covering half the length of the field only for the referee to rule that he lost the ball in the act of scoring.
All in all the U19’s deserve credit for a very convincing win in difficult circumstances. They have trained for a fifteen man game and had to adjust to playing 13 aside. They were playing away from home and are still someway short of their strongest squad through injury and unavailability. They will know that they can still improve on this performance. It was great to see Luke Connolly give such a commanding performance. Without doubt his sheer physicality is a major asset and he must surely take the “man of the match” award.
