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2nds Battle hard away to Coleraine | Mon 16th Jan 2006 | | Team:- Les, McCarter, McSparron, Lee, David C, Gary B, Jonny Kee, A.J, Gary S, Paddy, Gareth C, David M, David W, Adam, Soupy.
We hit coleraine in good spirits as it was perfect weather for playing rugby and the pitch was in great condition. We arrived at the Coleraine Inst playing fields after a much spirited drive by myself over the limavady mountain as I wanted to show David W a great road for the motorbike. This didnt really impress A.J. or soupy as they didnt seem to care too much for my driving style particularly A.J. who was actually quiet for a whole 10 minutes!!! We arived in one piece smelling of diesel so were on a high.
Gary won the toss and elected to take the kick with our backs to the sun. Strabane piled on the pressure for the first 10 or 15 minutes playing mostly in the coleraine half. I even caught the ball and was making a break however the ref thought it was thrown forward. Guess he has been watching Paul on our wednesdaqy night sessions and has assumed we all throw the ball forward. Anyway coleraine made an intense drive up the field and were awarded with a scrum on our 5 metre line. The scrum half took the ball at the back, passed to the flanker and then a maul formed which they eventually drove over the line to secure the 5 points. Not to be outdone the strabane boys marched straight up to their 22 and were awarded with a penalty which Gary slotted over the posts. Just.
Unbelievable defense from strabane saw a possible score held up over the line then 2 more drives repelled before the ref saw yellow and sent David W off for 10 mins for the strabane men being offside continuously. There where more players than just David involved but he is the man the ref singled out. We then defended heroically with 14 men holding off another drive before coleraine decided to take the easy option and took the 3 points. The half finished 8-3 to coleraine.
The restart went well however coleraine where now doing slightly better in the lineouts, stealing ball and disrupting our jumper. Good place kicking saw coleraine inside our 22 for long periods of play and they used a set piece well. It involved the scrum being won, with a number 8 pick up, off loading to the scrum half and then a pass out to either the flanker or the winger. This worked well with the coleraine men getting into a good maul formation and once again driving over the line. The conversion was put over the posts. Its now that the strabane men really turned it up a gear. We had long periods of play inside the coleraine half and were getting penalties however, in my opinion, Gary was taking the wrong options going for the 3 points instead of trying for the corner. He missed 2 kicks at goal. I even managed to surpass myself by catching a ball from a pass, side stepping a man, handing off another tackle then got nailed by 3 tacklers, it took that many to stop my pace and momentum! I somehow even managed to set the ball up for another phase for something to go wrong but it wasnt me as i was on the deck. Anyway the match finished with coleraine winning by a mere 12 points.
To sum up we played very well with a new look team. Several call ups meant that we had no line jumper so credit to AJ who said he wasnt much of a jumper but done well. We had no scrum half but Gary done as best he could. Adam on the wing played well so maybe he can be used more often as he had pace and wasnt scared to tackle. David M had a great game at first centre with some good runs and big tackles going in. Cant forget about soupy either who came in to pull us out in full back. He didnt want to have to tackle but when he did it counted and he has a useful boot. All in all it was a good performance and heres to a better match next week against Ballymena!
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