Jones and Wright score for U13s at Lurgan Share
Lurgan 48 BANBRIDGE U13s 10December 10, 2011
The U-13s travelled to Lurgan, probably the strongest team in the province , hoping to show improvement from their home 85-0 drubbing earlier in the season. Traditionally slow starters, they knew it was vital to keep Lurgan in check early on and for the first 20 minutes the Bann performace was fantastic- the backline repeatedly came up flat as a unit causing the fast Lurgan attack to crab across the pitch without gaining ground. Despite missing some usual starters the Bann scrum worked hard and refused to be bullied; at the break down the forwards were helped by backs, forcing Lurgan onto the back foot and winning a number of penalties. Inevitably the bigger, well-drilled Lurgan pack began to exert some control and their fast footed centres exploited slight misalignments to break through for tries as the Bann side tired. However heads did not go down. Lurgan did manage to score 48 points, but the manner in which the depleted Bann team, away from home, improved over the previous encounter was gratifying. No one likes to lose, but this team left the pitch knowing that they had put together extensive periods of positive play against a very strong side - something to build upon.
The relatively inexperienced winger Mark Girvan cleared out a ruck, allowing scrum half Morgan Topping to rapidly move the ball through hands to find Charlie Wright, whose pace and balance propelled him past a number of Lurgan tacklers for a try that re-energized the Bann pack. Captain Charlie Jones celebrated his birthday with a hard-earned try in the second half.