High School travelled to Letterkenny for this important League game anticipating a close and tightly fought match . The day was dry but blustery as the coach containing the team and band of Alikadoos arrived at the Letterkenny grounds. 

The game got underway on time with High School taking the initial plaudits with a series of good scrums and pressure on the Letterkenny line . Unfortunately as often happens in these situations Letterkenny secured the first points against the run of play when they were awarded a penalty in a good kicking position. 

The game continued with both packs attempting to assert authority . The Letterkenny pack was significantly bigger than High School but the mobility and workrate of the School eight was sufficient at this stage of the game to give them the advantage around the pitch. The backline as usual were dangerous with ball in hand but on this particular day they seemed unable to deal the killer blow when sniffing around the Letterkenny line.

With continued pressure from High School and good defence by Letterkenny being the order of the day the High School were unlucky to concede the next points when a good attacking move broke down inside the Letterkenny 22. The ball went to ground and was hacked on by the Letterkenny full back who , in a foot race to the High School line , got the first touch to the ball. The try was converted. 

As the game moved on Letterkenny began to dominate the scrums although High School continued to do well in the lineout with Mark Lambe securing good ball from  accurate throwing. With the scrums on the retreat High School found it difficult to secure tidy ball for the backline although Jonny Mayne did well to clean up regularly. 

A period of Letterkenny pressure resulted in the next points. With the referee playing advantage from an earlier incident the Letterkenny outhalf dropped a goal from in front of the posts . This gave Letterkenny an eleven point lead but High School did not panic and stuck to their task taking the game to Letterkenny on every level. Unfortunately as the game was approaching half time yet again a somewhat farcical situation arose which may have influenced the outcome of the game at a crucial stage. With Letterkenny on the attack the ball was pumped up the field. A High School player went back to cover and ushered the ball across what he thought was the goal line for a touch down and subsequent dropout. However, the Letterkenny pitch has solid 5 metre lines at both ends ( as opposed to a broken line ) and with a ruck ensuing a scrum was awarded to Letterkenny from which a try was scored. During the game there were two other incidents where players mistakenly thought the 5 metre line was the goal line.

HALF  TIME     LETTERKENNY 18    -    0  BHSFP 

During the half time break the Letterkenny No 8 left the pitch having sustained an  injury to an eye at the end of the first half. 

With a man down Letterkenny maintained their pressure up front and after 3 minutes of the half failed to convert a further penalty award. The game at this stage was starting to deteriorate with tempers flaring on both sides . Some five minutes into the half Paul Lavery , the victim of an earlier off the ball incident was yellow carded bringing the numbers on both sides to 14. 

High School were defending well and good tackling by Davy Rice and Ian Elliott stopped a number of Letterkenny attacks. High School themselves were now starting to get into the game more and with the ball moving to the wings on a number of occasions it seemed that a try would come. Letterkenny however drove out of defence 10 minutes into the half and secured a line out on the High School 5 metre line . A good catch and drive took them over for the try which was unconverted. 

Shortly after this High School were reduced to 14 men when Gareth Mc Manus was forced to leave the field with a back injury. Uncontested scrums were then introduced. 

With tempers not a lot cooler the game continued with High School continually threatening the Letterkenny line. Things came to the boil on 20 minutes when there was a bust up involving a number of players from both teams. The result of this was two Letterkenny players and one High School player ( Davy Rice ) receiving the yellow card. 

The High School side continued to attack Letterkenny for the remainder of the game.D Rice 

On thirty minutes the yellow carded players were restored to the pitch and with thirty two minutes played High School ran in a good try . This came from clean ruck ball moved across the backs to Davy Rice who took his opportunity and went in for the points. Peter Taylor narrowly missed the conversion.

The game finished without further score or incident.   

No game for two weeks. The next match is away to Antrim on November 27^th 

Labor Ipse Voluptas

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Last modified: November 07, 2004