Strabane had the rare privilege of hosting two semi-finals on Saturday and the firsts beat Holywood 30-14 in the gordon west
But unfortunately the seconds were beaten 12-23 by belfast harlequins 4’s in the mccambley cup
The firsts were playing their 4th game of the season against Holywood, who they had narrowly beaten twice earlier, but had been beaten by them 20-19 in belfast last weekend.
The visitors got off to the perfect start, when an unfortunate slip by the Strabane defence was compounded by a cruel bounce off a post that wrong-footed covering full back, dean mccarter,
and Holywood were on hand to pounce for a converted try. Strabane recovered well from this early setback and were rewarded for their pressure by davy rankin’s boot, which guided over two well taken penalties
At this point a Holywood supporter collapsed with suspected heart attack. An ambulance was rushed to the scene while a nurse, who was fortunately at the pitch, administered first aid.
We hope he is recovering well and Strabane rugby passes on its best wishes to him and his family.
The game resumed and Strabane started to impose themselves on the visiting pack and gained the upper hand in the close exchanges.
Greg Mitchell came on near end of first half and his introduction changed the game and sealed the fate of holywood
Greg Weighed in with 2 tries, the first a simple matter of a number 8 opportunist score from a pushover try (which the front row are still claiming) and for the second he had the decency to pick up off the advancing scrum and then bulldoze through the defence.
Strabane now had their tails up and after at least a dozen phases of play, hooker Gary smyth ran a great line and was put into a gap by centre brian allen and duly crossed for a good team try.
Mitchell lifted from back of scrum and went blind, sucked in the 6 and winger and off-loaded to Strabane winger Geoff Mealiff, who scampered round behind the posts, the conversion leaving the final score 30-14
The whole team deserves great praise for fighting their way to strabane’s first cup final since 2000, but a few players stood out.
Davy Smiler Miller covered every blade of grass, davy rankin’s kicking from the tee and out of hand were excellent, gary smyths darts were worthy of bullseye and of course greg Mitchell brought his experience and nous, and not inconsiderable bulk to proceedings.
Ravenhill on the 14th of april here we come.
The twos hosted an unknown team in belfast harlequins 4’s but judging by their league postion just behind the impressive ballyclare 4s, we knew they would be no slouches.
After the opening exchanges we were absolutely sure we were going to be in for a tough game, with their backs looking very dangerous, and a first centre who surely is destined for much higher quality rugby.
Strabane were able to dominate up front, with continual steals and disruption of the harlequins lineout and with a more structured approach they hammered their way up the pitch. but when play broke up, quins were always looking to counter quickly and were denied early on by some last gasp home defence, clive allen producing a great tackle that forced a knock on when the belfast man seemed odds-on to score.
Quins opened the scoring when their scrum-half slipped through to dot down under the posts, but Strabane stormed back at the quins line and camped in the 22 for prolonged periods. After a tremendous struggle, with the visitors unable to clear their lines and strabane’s pack recycling possession well, an overlap was eventually created on the right and outhalf mowbray crashed over for a well deserved try, and he picked himself up to level the scores to half time.
The game resumed at an even higher pace, with the play going from end to end, but Strabane started to gain superiority in the scrums, and this dented the attacking potential of quins. The breakdowns were being ferociously contested, but the ref pinged Strabane for a couple of 50-50 decisions and the visitors were awarded 2 penalties which their dangerous out-half duly slotted. Undeterred, Strabane fought their way down into a good attacking position between the quins 22 and 10m lines and from a well worked lineout, mauled to within 5 metres of the line.
The pack and inside backs hammered away and again mowbray was on hand to sniff out the gap and got in for another try, the conversion just missed to leave the scores poised on a knife edge at 12-13.
The game continued in the same form but from a smart kick ahead the Strabane back 3 were put under tremendous pressure by the chasing belfast men. The homesters seemed to have secured the ball near their goal-line, but the ball somehow bobbled out of the ruck and a quins player was on hand to score the handiest of tries, the conversion all but sealing the game. Just to rub salt in the wound they kicked another penalty to give the scoreline a flattering gloss, but both teams had fought tooth and nail and quins just about deserved the win.
We wish belfast harlequins all the best for the final against ballyclare, but unless they can strengthen the pack very quickly they are unlikely to win
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Ireland Ladies Rugby I XV Are playing England this weekend and need as much support as they can get – please watch the clip below and feel free to share it, they are on the verge of a great VICTORY & with Ulster representation!
[youtube w72eOkj_XYI]
