UUC Power NI 2XV match report 14-09-13
The first fixture of the new season saw the uni second XV play their first round match of the Junior 5 League in good conditions against Dungannon 4’s
The game started very even with both sides getting share of position. The first infringement came from the Dungannon side and was in range for Tommy McGlaughlin. Penalty converted, 3-0. Dungannon replied from the kick off with some very forceful defence pinning the students into their 22 were Dungannon turned the ball over but a little knock allowed for a uni scrum, who coped tremendously well with the bigger Dungannon pack, allowed Tommy to kick the ball safely to touch on the uni 10m line. From a messy lineout allowed Angus ‘The Goose’ Jinks to borrow through from no where to gather the ball, and the uni pack did exceptionally well to recycle the ball from a very physical pack, with several phases of play later allowed Tommy a sneaky pot shot at goal with a drop kick, score now stood 6-0.
However this did not deter the advancing Dungannon lads as they upped the tempo of the game for the next 20mins of play and with some thundering runs from their centres and forwards Dungannon fought back with vengeance and succeeded with two converted try in quick succession, the half ended with a long range penalty from Tommy yet again to make the scores 9-14 to Dungannon.
Half time 9-14
The second half saw the students start off strong, and with the gathering of the ball by Richard Brunt, who was a thorn in the Dungannon lineout all day long stealing one against the throw, which led to multiple phases of play and saw winger Adam Crawford draw the full back and feed back inside to the ever tracking Captain Phil McLean to go over in the corner, conversion missed 14-14.
Unfortunately for the game, it saw the lose of 2 Dungannon players through injury from this high tempo and physical game, and with a suspect binning of their prop reduced the Dungannon lads to 12 men, and with an over extended period in the sin bin by the ref allowed Tommy to yet again slot over a penalty and yet another drop goal, 20-14, but the lack of numbers allowed the student side to physically wear the Dungannon boys out by spreading the ball from one side to the other and with an ever more powerful student defence, as the Dungannon lads strived for another try and turn over by prop Darryl McCorriston saw yet another section of multiple phases and off loads allowing winger Adam Crawford on his debut to run 45metres and score between the posts Adam dropped the conversion to make the score 27-14 for the final score.
Great start to the second’s season who have aspirations of following on from last years league win by targeting Junior 5, they also wish to pass on their best wishes to the injured Dungannon lads and hope for a speedy recovery.
