Jolly good Fallows seals Dalriada success

LAST Saturday Dalriada U-13 rugby team played a strong Wallace High School team at Ballymoney Rugby Club. In a tough game the Ballymoney boys produced an outstanding performance to win by 24 points to 7.

Having won the toss, the Dalriada boys elected to play into the strong wind.

However, despite fairing the elements, it was the home team who exerted the early pressure with some excellent rucking and good pairing keeping the visitors on the defensive.

This constant pressure led to a poor clearance kick from the Wallace full back, which was plucked from the air by Ross Fallows who burst through the defence to score an unconverted try.

As the first half progressed, the Wallace team made more use of the wind to kick deep into the Dalriada half and from one of these kicks, the Dalriada fullback failed to clear.

From the resulting ruck, one of the Wallace forwards drove over the line for a try which was converted to give the visitors a 7 – 5 lead at half time.

With the wind on their backs in the second half, the Dalriada boys really went on the offensive pinning the visitors inside their own half. After a number of passes, the ball was spun wide to Fallows who crashed over the line in the corner for a fine try.

At this stage the Dalriada boys played some superb rugby particularly in loose play with the forwards dominating their counterparts.

In the backs, scrum half Matthew Kennedy kept his forwards on the front foot with a number of excellent box kicks. Outhalf Connor Creith and centre Stewart Moore also kicked intelligently to keep the pressure on the Wallace defence. This constant pressure resulted in a third try for Ross Fallows who scored below the posts for Stewart Moore to kick the conversion.

At this stage the Ballymoney boys played some of the best rugby of the season and the final try came when winger Matthew Scott cut a good angle of running to score a try which Moore converted to make the final score 24 – 7 in favour of Dalriada.

This was an outstanding win for the young Dalriada team with every member of the squad playing a role.

The training sessions held over the holiday period certainly paid dividends and on this form, the Dalriada boys are a match for any school in the Province.