Missed opportunity

Londonderry YM (8) 18

LURGAN 1st XV kicked off their Kukri Qualifying Three campaign last Saturday with Londonderry YM the visitors to Pollock Park.

This game turned out to be an entertaining affair although Lurgan, having played very well, will realise that had they taken a few more chances that were on offer they could have and should have won the game rather comfortably against a YM side who were relegated last season from Qualifying Two.

The visitors started the brighter and dominated the opening 15 minutes and gained an unconverted 11th minute try by their centre.

Lurgan's first scoring chance came just after the first quarter of the game had passed when Scott Gardiner was put into space but he failed to hold on to the ball with the line at his mercy.

Stephen Nolan reduced the arrears with a 27th minute penalty and seven minutes later Lurgan took the lead. From a line-out just inside the YM half, clean ball off the top was spun through the hands of the back line and right wing Chris Wamsley found himself on the end of a first phase move to score in the right hand corner with Nolan banging over the touchline conversion.

From the restart YM collected the ball and kicked down field. The ball was taken back by Lurgan and when a huge hole appeared on the right Chris Wamsley failed to see full back Richard Clarke in plenty of space with a score almost certain against a flat footed YM defence. But when Wamsley took the ball into contact the chance was gone.

On the stroke of half time YM kicked a penalty to leave the score 10–8 in the home side's favour at the break.

11 minutes after the restart YM took the lead when a rare defensive lapse by Lurgan resulted in YM’s centre coasting though to score by the posts for a converted try and a 15–10 lead.

Lurgan hit back and put pressure on the YM line with Stephen Nolan having the ball dislodged from his hand as he stretched for the line on 62 minutes and Lurgan saw another chance disappear. Two minutes later Nolan did reduce the score to two points with another well struck penalty only for YM to reply minutes later with a penalty of their own and regain their five point lead.

Another Nolan penalty on 70 minutes brought Lurgan back to within two points of the visitors, but even with YM having a player sin-binned and Lurgan centre Scott Gardiner being unable to finish the game due to being kicked to the eye by a stray boot, Lurgan could not get in range to launch one more attack and a YM turnover resulted in them kicking the ball out and the referee blowing the whistle.

This would have been a fantastic scalp for Lurgan to pick up early in the season and the players knew after the game that while they performed well and also cut down their penalty count that this game was one that got away and an opening two points missed out on.

They have a chance to get off the mark in Kukri Qualifying Three this weekend when they entertain Cavan at Pollock Park, kick off 2.30pm.

Lurgan team: Richard Clarke, Chris Wamsley, Dean Swift, Scott Gardiner, Jonny Kingham, Stephen Nolan, Chris Jenks, Graham Currie (capt), Gavin Collins, Andrew Mackey, Conor Mallon, Aaron Robinson, Michael Campbell, Jamie Pedlow, Keith McBride.

Fixtures for Saturday, October 9 - Kukri Qualifying Three: Lurgan vs Cavan at Pollock Park, kick off 2.30pm. Magner's Junior League Section Five: Carrickfergus 3rds vs Lurgan 2nds at Woodlawn Road, Carrickfergus, kick off 2.30pm.