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STRABANE 21 - RANDALSTOWN 8 | Sat 01st Oct 2005 | | the team- 1. mal, 2. bob, 3. davy, 4. nigel, 5. bert, 6. eddie, 7. cricky, 8. mitchy, 9. maxi, 10. brian, 11. ross, 12. mowbs, 13. gilsy, 14 soupy, 15. housty
the second match of the season saw soupy and bob returning to little acclaim and paul unable to play due to family commitments. the randalstown team were in strabane at around 12.00 noon, and had lunch in the railway cafe and were out warming up even before i arrived at 1.33pm - this shows how seriously they were taking this fixture, and after giving donegal town a hiding last saturday, their tails must have been well up.
mal continued his good fortune with the coin toss ( i always said he was a lucky tosser ) and he decided to play with the strong wind behind us in the first half. randalstown kicked off towards lifford and battle commenced.
we seemed to think the wind was going to do a lot of the work for us as we kept randalstown in their own half, but couldn't force a score. our lineouts were confused to say the least - with players saying they couldn't hear the calls in the very stong breeze and the lifters going to sleep on some calls. combined with giving away silly penalties when we were excerting pressure we kept letting them off the hook. i was making up for missing last weeks game by getting penalised 4 times at the breakdown ( i promise that's this year's quota ) for being over eager - but not once for rolling over mowbs and paul . the ref seemed to be very strict on us for off-side, and pinged us on far too many occasions, but saying that the ref was in my opinion very good - he was only 30 and used to play for belfast harlequins!
on the plus side, we also totally disrupted their lineout as well, and as the game went on, became more and more dominant in the scrum. eventually housty kicked a penalty to put us 3 up and that started to lift us and the decision to start running a few penalties definitely got our gander up - mal thinks we need to start putting a few runs together in the forwards to get us going and i think he may be on to something. after our best bit of play, with some great commitment to carrying the ball and clearing out the big randalstown forwards, a storming run by mitchy saw him well supported when he hit the deck, and maxi was on hand to pick up and barge over with some men carrying him the last few yards for our first score . in very difficult conditions for kicking, housty missed the conversion narrowly.
to randalstown credit, they immediately came back at us and had their only bit of pressure for the last five minutes of the first half. their scrum half made a great break up the blind from a static maul and went charging into our 22 and was heading under the posts but for mowbray-halfburgers last ditch tackle. mowbs claimed that in the ensuing ruck he killed the ball deliberately to avoid a near cartain score if the ball had been moved wide, but i've a nagging doubt that after his herculean effort in dragging his " love-machine fuel tank" back to cover he hadn't the energy to get out of the way . the ref must've been of the same opinion as he didn't card him, but did give randalstown a penalty in front of the posts, 5 yards out. they then proceeded to batter the strabane line with their big guns, but our defence was up to the challenge, and they eventually saw sense and kicked a penalty, leaving the halftime score 8-3.
at half time we all stood ( having been warned that anyone lying down would need my professional services - undertaking ) round and mowbs said in no uncertain terms that 8-3 was never going to be enough to win this game. his plan was to try to disrupt all their possession and play our own tight game, and as much as it pains me to say it, he was 100% correct .he felt randalstown were only superior to us at the breakdown, and that we needed to be cleaning out much quicker - he's beginning to sound like the wife
playing into the wind definitely suited us better, as we immediately knuckled down to business and we continued to pressure randalstown. we stole some decent lineout ball, and when we challenged at 4, eddie got up and across well and caused havoc all round. but it was at scrum time that we really took control - when the opposition starts to refuse scrums as an option for an infringement, the pack knows the game should be over.
with some better possession the backs had a bit of space ( aided by the randalstown centre having too many collisions with the "burger-boys", and having to retire ) and brian found a gap and went through it quicker than gilsy after a chancy doll. mowbs showed the sort of pace not often mentioned on these boards ( at least concerning rugby ) to come up well in support, and with a bit still to do, he finished very well. housty missed the conversion again, but he made up for it a short time later with a penalty that put us into a relatively comfortable 16 - 3 lead.
randalstown were not prepared to give up so easily and used their lineout to advance up the pitch and mauled their way to within 5 yards after numerous phases, and in the confusion they created a 2 on 1 in the corner and got in for a try. their kicker tried to steal a good few yards in from the touchline, and only when some quick-witted players ( i think it was housty and ross, and i can definitely rule out another 12 ) shouted to the ref, did he catch on and move the thief back out again. it's as well he did as the bugger hit the bar, but thankfully it bounced out.
with that timely reminder that the game was far from over, we marched back down into their half and eventually set a scrum 10 yards out from their line. with mounting supremacy and countless scrums against the head, the pack were confident of powering to the line. once the ball was at mitchy's feet, we dug deep and started advancing to the line, their tight-head prop was the first to bail out and their front row soon totally split. by the line, our front row was strolling like we were on a sunday family outing, and maxi had the simplest of jobs of dropping between mitchy's legs to score the try that sealed the game .
other talking points from the game were ross smyth's ill-advised trial of tefal's new non-stick gloves ( sorry rossi, that was bert's line, but i don't think you dropped as many balls all last season ), mowbs running commentary on high tackles ( " referee he's going in a bit high... ref, he's hit me far too high..... ref, he's bloody did it again.........JESUS CHRIST REF, how many times " ref- " different player ", mitchy getting robbed like a virgin on a night out in cavan town, bert turning up last and without his brain in gear .and we'll not mention me again, like a fecking pup at the start.
overall, i thought the team as a whole did well in the second half, the backs looked good in difficult conditions and the scrum was as good as the lineout was bad, so we've plenty to work at on wednesday night.
mal won't be making the trip to virginia as he's scared, again, so who's going to step up this week into the pack, and with soupy back from injury the pressure is on the backs as well |
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