U15s score five in league opener Share
BANBRIDGE U15s 31 Lurgan 5October 8, 2011
The U15s got their league campaign off to the perfect start with a comfortable home win over the much fancied Lurgan. The half ended with some great passing between forwards and backs and Jardine was once again in the right place to race over the line for his second try. Cromie converted to leave the half time score at 19-0. The Lurgan re-start was well caught by Megaw and he made great ground to bring play into the Lurgan "22" before being bundled into touch. The bigger Lurgan pack were not being allowed any time to settle by the more mobile Bann forwards. This was evident when a loose ball from the lineout was gathered up by Megaw and quickly fed to Keelan McCambridge who side-stepped his way over the line for the fourth try. Bann once again found themselves in an attacking position after forwards and backs combined, with Jake Chambers and Josh Cromie in the vanguard, to drive deep into Lurgan territory. Megaw picked and went from the base of a ruck and was stopped just short of the line but quick thinking from the ever-improving Robin Hewitt saw him peel the ball away and score under the posts. Cameron Cromie converted. The front row of Jake Dennison, Chambers and Andrew Cromwell are proving a match for anyone at the set piece while also hard-working in the loose. The backline worked well as a unit with Josh Cromie and Keelan McCambridge getting everything moving at pace. The powerful centre partnership of Cameron Cromie and Jardine had the supply they needed to score three tries between them. With the pace on the wings and safe hands at full back this back line should not fear anyone providing the team continues to train together. Man of the match for the day must go to the hard working Alex Megaw who covered every inch of the field and tackled anything that moved. His speed, agility and leadership skills are second to none. Training continues Monday and Wednesday nights from 6.50 to 8.30.
From the start the Bann forwards let their intent be known by pressurizing the Lurgan defence and forcing a knock on. The resulting scrum saw the ball flashed out the backs to Cameron Cromie who weaved his way over the line to score left of the posts before adding the conversion.
Almost immediately Bann found themselves on the Lurgan "22" after some great work from the forwards through Alex Megaw and Samuel Mount. Once again the ball was fed to the backs and powerful centre Jason Jardine crashed through several tacklers to get the touchdown. The conversion was missed.
A number of changes were made to the Bann team and this seemed to spur the Lurgan boys on. A well placed kick down the flank from Josh Cromie saw the ball expertly picked up with one hand by the Lurgan out-half who set up an attack down the left. Great tackling from James Curry prevented a score but from the following ruck Lurgan realized that the Bann backline was sucked in and they quickly flashed the ball wide to score an unconverted in the right hand corner from the final play of the game.
This was a decent performance by the 15s, opening their league with a deserved win. However there's still a lot of hard work to be done on the training pitch. The forwards need to keep the rucks simple and tidier and the backs need to support each other better at the breakdown.