With a couple of enforced changes in personnel High
School travelled to Cavan determined to continue in their winning ways. As
usual there were a good number of travelling alikadoos even though the
journey to Cavan takes nearly 3 hours by bus. The changes to the team from
last week were Coach Davy Scott coming into the front row in place of John
Balmer who is likely to be out for a few weeks following his shoulder
injury in the UUC game. Also injured in that game was David Mayne who was
replaced in the centre by Phil McKeown moving from full back allowing the
youthful Derek Wilson to make his first start of the season as last line
of defence.
With the long bus journey behind them High School
preparations were not helped by the referee arriving 25 minutes late for
the match. However, with the game underway High School signalled their
intentions with the first scrum of the match taken against the head. This
was a positive start for the front row which was to continue for the rest
of the match.
As the game warmed up it was clear that Cavan would
present a greater challenge on their home ground than when they visited
Greenisland. Their robust pack gave a good account of themselves early on
and were ably assisted by a reasonable backline with the number 10
doubling up as an extra back row. For their part High School absorbed the
early pressure and threatened the Cavan defence on a number of occasions.
It was Cavan however who got the first opportunity to open the scoring
with a penalty attempt on 16 minutes. With the opportunity squandered
Cavan soon found them under greater pressure as High School established
territorial advantage in the corner with the lineout to come. A clean
catch and drive saw Stephen Morton, who earlier had suffered a dead leg
secure the points after twenty two minutes of play.Tim Murphy converted.
Soon after High School were to get their own penalty
chance which Tim Murphy slotted between the sticks taking the score to Ten
nil in favour of the visitors.
With Cavan spoiling a lot of ball it was only a
matter of time before frustration crept in and as a result Jonny Mayne was
yellow carded on 35 minutes after legitimately questioning a decision by
the referee. With Fourteen men on the field High School were undaunted and
again drove to the corner for a good push over try this time by rookie
prop Davy Scott converted by Tim Murphy.
There were no further scores before half time.
HALF TIME Cavan 0
- 17
BHSFP
Continued infringements by the Cavan team saw High
School awarded another penalty soon after the break, which was again duly
dispatched by Tim Murphy. This was followed up almost immediately when
Stephen Morton secured his second try of the day from yet another catch
and drive situation. The conversion was missed but by now High School had
established a strong lead and had defended everything thrown at them by a
Cavan side that played well in periods but were unable to sustain lengthy
periods of pressure.
With the High School backline now starting to run
some excellent lines it wasn’t long before a further score was added to
the total. This came from a good handling move by the three quarters,
which saw the ball delivered to the hands of Neil Hastings who collected
the pass brilliantly to leave the Cavan defence standing in his wake as he
went in at the corner. The conversion was missed.
With the game now secure High School relaxed to the
extent that Cavan took advantage of poor defensive work in a maul
situation to score a try much against the run of play. The conversion was
missed but Cavan were now on the score sheet .
With thirty five minutes of the half elapsed Neil
Hastings added to his tally for the day with another well taken try. Good
vision by Jonny Mayne saw the scrumhalf chip over the Cavan defence as it
moved up to allow Neil space and time to collect the bouncing ball and
outstretch the last man to score behind the posts. T Murphy converted.
The challenge from Cavan had now almost petered out
and with only 2 minutes left on the clock Jordan Frampton who had been
unlucky earlier in the match finished an excellent run to score the final
try of the game converted by Tim Murphy.
As the referee called time High School were pleased
with this win after a difficult build up to the game. All in all this was
a much improved performance from the previous week and augers well for the
final series of matches starting in 3 weeks time.
FINAL SCORE
Cavan 5 -
44 BHSFP
The next Match is at home to PSNI on February 18th
( KO 2.30 ). This is an important match so full support would be
most welcome on the day.
MATCH FACTS
TRIES
6 ( S Morton 2, N
Hastings 2 , D Scott , J Frampton )
CONVS
4 ( T Murphy )
PENS
2 ( T Murphy )
Labor Ipse Voluptas
