Ballymena U-20 55-5 Instonians U-20.
Nothing to say except thanks to
the players who made the efffort
to turn up on a miserable night (and not just
because of the rain!!). One
bright note was the effort that was put in right
until the end to get the
deserved last minute try.
Unfortunately, some more injury concerns (David
Harris - hand, Johnny Moore
- Hand, Myles Sheridan - Shoulder and Peadair
Mennan - Ankle), we hope they
recover quickly.
Try: Arrash Rizi
Squad:
Posn Name
1 Karl Bennett
2 Myles Sheriden
3 Peedair Meenan
4 David Harvey
5 Mark French
6 Jarrij Booley
7 Stephen McCann
8 John Bogle
9 Aaron Gardiner
10 Rory McCann
11 Andrew Williamson
12 David Harris
13 Rob Brown
14 Johnny Moore
15 Gavin Harper
16 Richard Troupe
17 Adam Keith
18 Arrash Rizi
Just to add to what Gordon has said, we came
up against a very physical, well drilled Ballymena
team with a strong back row (especially their
6 who was brilliant). They also had good players
at 10, 13 and 11 resulting in a Ballymena team
who were far more dominant at the breakdown
and had more intensity, speed and aggression
around the field.
In my view, it was a predictable result purely
because of our lack of depth and inability to
train with a full team. Even though we suffered
a solid defeat, players of note included:
- Gavin Harper
- Jarrij Booley (who had to play the second
half out of position at 12)
- John Bogle
- Aaron Gardiner
It's hard to get stern with a team when you
haven't been able to work on a game plan, any
proper defensive structure, set pieces or anything
like that other than a little bit of defensive
tracking and some rucking with 9 players at
training - we could be on the end of similar
results against the likes of Dungannon until
this changes.
So, I think until we get numbers to training,
our expectation of the team should be realistic
and realise that the players have to literally
‘string things together’ for 80
minutes.
I don't like losing but I there is a core group
of players that are enjoying it and their game
is developing which is better for the club long
term which is the most important thing.
We have Cooke next week and I know some of
the guys are really keen to get stuck into them
so hopefully we can come away with a better
result there.
Cheers guys, just wanted tomake these points.
See you on Saturday. Jarrett.
At 8.30 p.m. on a very wet evening,
20 minutes into a game delayed due to no referee,
life seemed pretty miserable. Rainey had just
scored their third try to lead 17-0 and it looked
like the Instonians team were only dreaming
of a warm shower.
However, things started to change;
tackles were made; turnovers started to be gained;
the scrum steadied and eventually a try came
to make it 17-7 at half time.
Whichever scored first in the
2nd half was likely to determine the outcome
of the match. After withstanding some early
Rainey pressure, Instonians worked their way
up the pitch to score another converted try.
At 17-14 thew game was on and a superb 3rd Instonians
try came with impressive running and handling
in the terrible conditions.
It was still anyones game at
this stage until a last minute try sealed it
for the away team. Thanks to Rainey for the
hospitality and rearranging the fixture from
last week and congratulations to the Instonians
team for showing real character to fight back.
The one disappointment from the night was to
learn that Matthew Lavery has broken a finger.
We hope it mends quickly.
Final score Instonians
26 Rainey 17.
Scores:
Tries Keith Rossan (2)
Chris Morgan (1)
Matthew Lavery (1)
Conv: Ricardo Ferreira (3)
Team
Position Name
1 David Mitchell
2 Myles Sheridan
3 Matthew Lavery
4 Adam Glass
5 Mark French
6 David Harvey
7 John Bogle
8 Adam Keith
9 Aaron Gardiner
10 Ricardo Ferreira
11 Rob Brown
12 David Harris
13 Keith Rossan
14 Stephen McCann
15 Chris Morgan
Still haven't managed to work
out how Instonians U20s managed to lose their
opening match of the Season. The visitors opened
the scoring following an
unfortunate mix up in the Instonians defense,
however the Home team rallied
and deservedly got back in touch with a try
by Johnny Moore. The latter
stages of ths 1st half saw the age old discipline
problem raise it's ugly
head again, resulting in a yellow card for the
home team and Ballyclare
taking advantage to lead 12-5 at half time.
The second half saw a significant improvement
in the Instonians play and
the Pack began to dominate, with a particularly
effective scrum. However
the backs failed to convert the pressure to
points amid determined
Ballyclare defense. Indeed Ballyclare managed
to steal another score from
one of their few ventures into Instonians territory.
The home team did not
give up and deserved their second try by Richard
Troupe (converted by Gavin
Harper). Ballyclare hung on to claim the points,
well done to them. Still
plenty to work on for the home team who individually
performed well but
didn't quite gel on the night.
Result: Instonians U20s 12 Ballyclare 17
Scores:
Tries: Johnny Moore
Richard Troupe
Conv: Gavin Harper
Team
Pos Name
1 David Mitchell
2 Myles Sheridan
3 Matthew Lavery
4 David Harvey
5 Adam Glass
6 Richard Troupe
7 Stephen McCann
8 Adam Keith
9 Aaron Gardiner
10 Bobby Harper
11 Johnny Moore
12 David Harris
13 Keith Rossan
14 Rob Brown
15 Chris Morgan
16 Richard McKibbon
17 Gavin Harper
18 Andrew Williamson
