Dalriada 1st XV dominate at Cambridge House

On Saturday Dalriada travelled to Ballymena to face Cambridge House.

The 1st XV team started very well by catching the restart and working their way up the pitch. The ball was then passed wide where centre Peter Dunlop cut the line and out manouvered the full back to score under the posts and the try was then converted by Timmy Emerson. The team then once more caught the restart and worked their way up the pitch, this then opened up an opportunity for out-half Timmy Emerson to break the line and score a try which he then converted.

Dalriada then took their foot off the gas allowing Cambridge House to come back into the match; a back line move allowed their centre to break through the line to score which their out-half then converted.

This re-focussed the Dalriada team and they responded immediately with a back line move allowing the ball to be shipped wide allowing Dan Henderson to score in the corner, unfortunatelythis time the conversion attempt was unsuccessful. The Dalriada team then began to pile on the pressure again bringing them into the Cambridge House 5 meter line, a well executed back line move then allowed Michael Finnerty to run under the posts unchallenged with a conversion by Timmy Emerson. This left the half time score as 26 – 7 to Dalriada.

Dalriada then started the second half strongly as great counter rucking by the forwards resulted in a turnover with the ball being passed to Timmy Emerson who broke the line and linked up well with Peter Dunlop allowing him to score in the corner.

They then pushed on and good ball retention from the forwards allowed Dalriada to work their way up the field, with the ball being shipped wide where an excellent line off the ball by Michael Finnerty drew in two defenders allowing Peter Dunlop to score in the corner to complete his hat-trick. The conversion attempt was unsuccessful.

The next try came as Peter Dunlop broke through the line and linked up well with Timmy Emerson allowing him to score a try under the post which he then converted. The team then worked their way up the pitch once more making their way up to the Cambridge House 5 meter line, Dalriada scrum-half Matthew Steele then dived over the line to score, resulting in another converted try.

Dalriada then pressurised Cambridge House and got a turnover in their 22, which was picked up by Peter Dunlop who offloaded to Johnny Allen who passed it to Timmy Emerson completing his hat-trick and scoring the final try of the game in the process, he then converted his own try to complete a brilliant display Dalriada. Man of the match went to Peter Dunlop. Final score was 57 – 7 to Dalriada.