Long journey north to Randalstown but well worth the trip for our Under 13’s.
Virginia youths made the long journey north to Randalstown on Saturday and the under 13 side fought a dogged win battling both ferocious Randalstown tackles and a heavy Pitch. It was the forwards who won the match for Virginia with props Conor Cahill, and Stephen Ryan showing the backs how to score and make hard yards. As a matter of fact all the Virginia forwards put in an impressive shift including the substitutes. Virginia won all their scrums and even won a few against the head with hooker Luke Brodie producing some excellent feet to claim a few balls against the head in the first half.
For full report and itinerary for visitng touring side Harrisburg Male & Female Team – CLICK HERE
To download forrest 5k walk forms CLICK HERE
The match started after a short warm-up and the two hour bus journey up showed as it took Virginia ten minutes to get into the game. With number 8 Ben Brunton and centre Charlie Reilly making surging runs, numerous overlaps were missed but eventually Ben Brunton scrambled a try under the posts with outhalf Peter Smith converting. No 12 inside centre Charlie Reilly then made a break to score a try near the touchline and the difficult conversion was narrowly missed. The game then became a forwards one with a lot of rucking and counter rucking by both teams,with Virginias srum half Sean Warren playing for a time as an extra forward when protecting the ball at the rucks . Virginia prop Stephen Ryan then picked up a ball on Randalstowns 22 and made a run for the line breaking through several tackles to score beside the posts and again outhalf Peter Smith converted to make the score 19 nill to Virginia. The second half started with Virginia making six changes to ensure everybody got a game. However Randalstown upped their game and their winger scored a good try under the posts with their outhalf converting. Virginia responded with a well worked try with number 7 Niall Preston making the hard yards to pop up a ball for Conor Cahill to barge over the line. Randalstown made a big effort to score again but resolute defending from Virginia kept them out,with some good clearing kicks by fullback Gareth Mannion who showed a cool head under pressure, however the referee deemed some unfair play by Virginia, awarded a penalty to Randalstown and with a quick tap and go the big Randalstown number 8 ran in a try. This brought the score to 24 12 to Virginia and the remainder of the half continued with both packs slugging it out but eventually Virginia centre Charlie Reilly make another break to score in the corner. The match finished 29 12 to Virginia.
Virginia have played better than this before however there were some good performances especially from Niall Preston, Conor Cahill, and Stephen Ryan, winger no 11 Mantas Ivaskevicius also deserves credit for a try saving tackle when Randalstowns tricky number 14 made a great run evading two tackles by Virginia fullback Gareth Mannion and No 10 Peter Smith, and he thought he was straight through to Virginias line only for winger Mantas to come across from his wing and cut the no 14 down with a bone crunching tackle. Overall Virginia deserved the win and was an excellent work out for everybody in the 21 man squad in difficult conditions.
Squad;
Luke Brodie, Ben Brunton, Conor Cahill, Oisin Cullen, Jamie Davidson, Paul Donoghue, Mantas Ivaskevicius, Pete Kiernan, Gareth Mannion, Daniel McConnon, Mark Mcsherry, Martin O Connell, Charlie O’Reilly, Fionn O’Reilly, Niall Preston, Steven Ryan, Luke Sheriff, Peter Smith, Sean Trainor, Sean Warren and Luke Tierney
