Big win for Newry Rugby Club's U14s over Ballyclare
Newry Rugby Club notes
Newry U14 36 Ballyclare U14 5
Newry travelled up the M1 to take on Ballyclare/Malone and they came home with a fantastic win.
Thankfully, the weather held to make great conditions for rugby. The boys were keen to get stuck in and correct a few issues from the previous week. The word of the day was ‘momentum’ and that is exactly what they did.
Pressure soon turned into points. There was plenty of direct running, offloading in the tackle and ripping the ball in the tackle. Pressure soon told and Newry were on the score sheet, with Anthony and Oran crossing the line after a few good phases of play. Ballyclare then started using their strengths and played up the middle with their bigger players. This enabled them to score a well worked try. Anthony added his second try after a pick up from the base of the scrum, first half score was 24-5 in Newry's favour. After a few words or encouragement, water and jelly babies the boys were keen to start the second half to put the game to bed.
What was great to see was that each player got time on the ball, make tackles and get involved. Conor and Jacob ran really good lines out wide making space with great passes inside. This enabled Anthony to score his hat-trick try and Oran his second. Ruairi, Oliver, Patrick, Larry and Ryan did the hard yards to give us forward momentum, often ending up in the backline and delivering some great passes.
Nearing the end of the second half, a quick tap penalty saw Patrick bulldoze his was over through five players to claim his score. This saw the game open up and Ballyclare defend their hearts out. Larry and Anthony came close to scoring with the defence just holding out. Tom started using his boot to good effect, with good chasing putting Ballyclare under pressure and pegging them back. Final score for official game was Newry 36 Ballyclare 5. The coaches then agreed to play the final 15 minutes with new players getting a run out. Newry once again dominated the exchanges, and won 17-0. Tries by Jacob, Finn and Rauiri. It was great to see the boys play with enthusiasm and even try out a few training ground moves. Coaches can only ask boys to play to a game plan and they did that very well.