UUC 25- Omagh 18 The fixture changed from Omagh due to an unplayable pitch, saw both teams serve up a highly entertaining game which had everything for the large crowd at the Sam Logan stadium.
Playing into the elements the students had the best of the early exchanges and after 10 minutes out half Whitcroft converted a Penalty from 40m out to give the home team the lead, despite some further good work especially out wide by Hall and Johnston the students could not trouble the score board.
Omagh then took control of the game, playing excellent rugby first in the tight and then on the flanks, forcing firstly penalties to be given away and then scoring two excellent trys. to take an 18 – 3 lead. With half time approaching the students had to dig deep to regain the initiative, and a great break out by full Back Lee Murphy who fed center Matt Hill, he then released John Henry, who made a run deep into the Omagh 22, quick recycling of the ball saw the second rows of Henly and Leonard make good pick and drives, forcing Omagh to concede a penalty which the Uni number 10 converted to make the score 18-6. Just before half time the university forced there way deep into the Omagh 22 but good defence forced big George Hall into touch and the referee blew for half time.
The elements now on there back and attacking Starke Park end, the students inspired by talisman Marty O’Neill went about dismantling the Omagh team in all aspects for a remarkable 30 minutes, Scrumhalf Winder sniped down the blind side, feeding no 8 Mike Dunlevey and the big man stormed into the Omagh defence, several pick and drives led by Ryan Eecock the live wire hooker, saw Omagh concede a penalty in front of the posts, Whitcroft slotted over to bring his tally to nine points.
Straight from the kick off Marty O’Neill made a fifty yard run beating off tackle after tackle, throwing in a few side steps for good measure before being hauled down just short of the Omagh try line, a great clear out by the supporting back row of Ollie Millar, Dunlevey and John Dillon saw the powerful Jamie Wilkinson pick and drive over the line to score a vital try, Whitcroft kicked the difficult conversion, the score now 18-16 to Omagh.
Relentlessly the students hunted any Omagh player in possession, and Whitcroft expertly spiralled to all corners of the Omagh half in a master class of the out of hand kicking art. Pressure told again and the visitors offered up another penalty which the Uni number 10 slotted over to see the students take a 19-18 lead.
5 minutes later a good passage of play which stretched the visitors from wing to wing then some forceful drives from the pack saw excellent field position rewarded by a Whitcroft drop goal to stretch the students lead, not finished yet further pressure from the hard working Wilkinson saw Miller who covered every blade of grass on the pitch, take and give with scrumhalf Winder, who when tackled saw two Omagh forwards go off there feet and concede another penalty. Alan Whitcroft converted from the difficult angle to bring his match tally to 20 points.
To their credit Omagh never gave up and tried to create something in the final minutes but they could not penetrate the home defence again. A great final counter saw Hall open his legs showing his class, to almost score in the corner but Omagh scrambled well in defence and denied him a reward for his hard afternoons work. The referee blew up shortly after to end a highly entertaining game, the final score 25-18 to the home team.
UUC 2’s suffer first league defeat.
It was a wet and windy day at Lime Park Armoy, the pitch was heavy under foot but the students battled hard from start to finish as the two best defensive teams in the league went head to head. Luck divided the teams in an outcome in a match that could have swung either way on the day.
The first half was a close fought encounter as both teams defended vigorously and a strong referee kept Armoy honest but first points went to Armoy after 15mins of play as they kicked a penalty, 3-0. The students battled back hard and only after Armoy conceded 8 penalties in a row did the students finally take advantage of a positional penalty and kicked 3 points of their own, 3-3. The continual penalty count frustrated the students as they couldn’t gather momentum against Armoy a yellow card may have enabled the game to settle down into some rhythm but this wasn’t to be and it was Armoy to strike next 10mins before half time by kicking a penalty to take the score to 6-3. 5 mins before half time the University lost hooker Jeremy Gregg who took a nasty tackle.
The second half saw the student start the more aggressive of the two teams stretching Armoy from one side of the pitch and Jamie Ball kicked them well deep into the corners, a knock on from a lineout by Armoy saw a scrum 8 metres from the line and pick up from Aaron Doherty drive well from the back of the scrum and quick recycling of the ball seen Stuart Whitcroft dive for the corner only to be denied by millimetres on the touch line.
The students found it hard to create any flow in their game due to excessive penalties from Armoy, however credit has to go to Armoy on their well drilled defence as they played the conditions well and kept the students at bay. It was this strong defence that put pressure on the students which saw a break down in communications and a dropped pass, the quick thinking of the Armoy number 6 saw him hack the ball through, he controlled the ball well to see him go over the line 10mins before time, the converted to make the score line 13-3. The students battled bravely to the last minutes of the game and believed if the game were to continue it would most definitely have finished on a different score.
Although the students were beaten they can take great pride from the game, as it was a hard fought game from both teams, and one of those games that could have went either way. There will be hard lessons learned from this game, and the students shall take them on board and implement them at training to help secure a victory in their next game away against Inishowen.
Man of the Match went to Jamie Ball at scrum who kept the students heading in the right direction.
