HURRICANE WILMA VISITS LURGAN
On a day where most sensible people should be sitting
in front of the telly avoiding the atrocious weather the High School team
took the field to face a confident Lurgan side on their home patch.
This was an important League encounter for both sides
given their respective positions in the table. The weather was to play a
major factor on the day and although conditions overhead were very poor
with strong winds and horizontal rain the Lurgan pitch was in good
condition and allowed the game to be played.
The game started with both sides finding it difficult
to get any real continuity into their play . It was obvious where the
Lurgan strength lay as their big and strong pack soon laid down their
intentions in the scrum, an area where High School struggled to find form
at any stage of the match. High School clearly had the edge in the
backline and around the pitch in general but with the ball resembling a
bar of lifeboy there was little opportunity for running rugby .
Defensively the High School eight did a great job continually thwarting
the much heavier Lurgan pack and denying them any decent scoring
opportunities. For the second week in a row Paul Lavery was outstanding
around the field ably supported by Davy Hanna and Stephen Morton both of
whom scavenged like demons in the loose. The front row also worked well in
the loose but were under pressure for most of the match in the set piece
and although the lineout tended to be a bit of a lottery Andy Morrison and
Greg Elliott disrupted much of the opposition possession and regularly
secured the ball at vital times.
With the game ten minutes old the first points were
secured by High School from the boot of Tim Murphy who slotted over a good
penalty putting the initial pressure on the home side. It wasn’t until
thirty two minutes had elapsed that any further scoring chance fell to
either side. Again Tim Murphy had a go at the posts but the elements
conspired to make it virtually impossible to put the ball between the
sticks. The ball fell short and from the ensuing scrum and ruck situation
High School scored what seemed like a perfectly legitimate try through
Stephen Morton. The referee however deemed otherwise and Lurgan escaped
the loss of a certain 7 points.
With High School exerting all the pressure at this stage and with half
time looming the Lurgan outhalf, Hooks, ran in for a try much against the
run of play . The subsequent conversion was missed leaving a two point gap
between the teams at half time.
HALF TIME
LURGAN 5
V 3 BHSFP
Rain and wind continued in the second half with no
let up and as the watching supporters gradually got wetter the game
carried on in the same vein as in the first half.
The first scoring opportunity of the half again fell
to the boot of Tim Murphy but was missed. Tim made amends however 7
minutes into the half when he secured a further penalty giving High School
a one point advantage and everything to play for. The massive Lurgan pack
continued to dominate the tight situations but were loosing mobility
around the pitch and it was this factor combined with good defence that
allowed High School to maintain momentum and deny the home side any
opportunities in this half.
With John Balmer, Pete Taylor and Gareth McManus
hitting anything that moved the rugby was far from pretty but was
effective in such a tight situation.
Captain Jonny Mayne at scrumhalf handled the poor
conditions extremely well and was instrumental in feeding Tim Murphy ball
which on occasions seemed impossible to deliver.The rest of the backline
were unable to show their silky skills as handling was nigh on impossible
but solid defence saw no way through for the one dimensional home attack .
A further penalty was secured by Tim Murphy on fifty
four minutes giving High School a small cushion to work with. The Lurgan
team threw everything at the visitors in the last ten minutes but were
unable to secure any further points.
The referee finally blew the whistle much to the
relief of the travelling support with High School taking the plaudits in a
hard fought and keenly contested match.
FINAL SCORE
LURGAN 5
V 9
BHSFP
Labor Ipse Voluptas
