Saturday 19 October 2002

Belfast Harlequins 5XV      17

Ballynahinch 5XV                19

It may have taken years but the 5s finally had their first home game at Deramore. The changing facilities, big wide pitch and excellent playing surface provided the perfect platform for the 5s to demonstrate their silky skills and renowned Champagne rugby. Boy did we not do the surroundings justice!

Asked after the match "what went wrong?" by Andre could only bring the response "We had trouble passing, kicking, tackling, retaining the ball, line outs, managing our tempers, and had a lack of will to win. But sure we know what needs to put right for next week!". He certainly looked very surprised, but after all we’re only a "participation" side and "performance" is left to the young lads.

In front of our biggest crowd of the season (it may have even been double figures) and with Jimmy video recording the first half we did however start really well with Andy Leitch going in for a well taken try (unconverted) and it looked like a fast flowing game and an impressive win was on the cards.

Instead of going for the kill we took the foot off the pedal a bit and let Ballynahinch back into the game for long spells. Fair play to Hinch as they were up for it, but I think that it was our mistakes that allowed them to gain ground.

In between all the mistakes there were moments of brilliance. The pick of which was Big Mark McCartney’s thundering run of 30 yards that was accompanied by a very menacing facial expression. This saw a number of Hinch players either battered out of the way or left hanging onto his back. Mark enjoyed it so much that he is determined to build on this and has even threatened to turn up for training this week.

Near the end of the half Andy Leitch again finished off a well worked move that saw him burst through the defence and score almost literally under the posts. Just as he was about to touch down, a cover tackle came in from nowhere and smashed him into the upright. Full marks to whoever put the posts up as they clearly did a good job and by rights the posts should have been plucked from the ground. The video replay in the bar afterwards did not make the incident any less painful looking and could be a contender for You’ve Been Framed. Our kicker did however manage the conversion for this one though.

12-0 at half time and our thoughts were more about killing the game off. But when the game restarted we became very lazy and continued to make loads of mistake. In general the handling was appalling. It wasn’t long before Hinch scored their first try which saw Ally being shepherded out of the way and then almost being used as a blocker by the advancing player. Did he actually carry him at one point? The conversion just scraped over the bar from a distance and at 12-7 we were looking pretty shaky even after our great intentions at half time.

We continued to dominate the scrums, however our lineouts were poor and our ball recycling was not much better. Our backs handling left a lot to be desired, as did some of the tackling. This may seem a bit critical but we had the ability to really get a decent points tally against this side and simply let ourselves down through mistakes and laziness.

Ballynahinch should however be commended for never giving up and scored a try after their full back was allowed to run half the length of the pitch without so much as a hand being put on him. Our backs’ defence was nothing more than absolutely pathetic for which Uprichard’s ranting and raving clearly indicated.

With the game poised at 12-12 we knuckled down a bit and gained some territorial advantage. Having wasted a three man over lap and made a few more mistakes we eventually got a five yard scrum. Having dominated the scrum all day our pack drove Hinch over the line and Daisy picked up at the base to score an easy try, despite their subsequent efforts to wriggle underneath the ball and claim it was held up. Again the conversion was missed.

It was around this point in the game that our normally mild mannered Manager, Barry Dowling retaliated to a kick in the mouth, which was probably more clumsy than malicious, and whacked their captain in the face. Fair enough, but with the red mist having completely descended, Barry through his now thickening lip launched a shameful tirade that led to him apologising after the game and actually nominating himself as "Dick of the Day". Once it had all calmed down both wingers were yellow carded.

With about 10 minutes to go and only 17-12 ahead we managed to get even worse and having kicked the ball down their centre’s throat from the base of a scrum, we then allowed them to run straight through our defence for a converted try. Those that were there to make a tackle didn’t, and those that should have tried to support didn’t. Pathetic!

With only 5 minutes remaining we again gained and applied pressure which led to a close finish. Again we missed a kickable penalty, which would have won us the game but Ballynahinch held on to take the points. I think that it would be fair to say that the better side lost but the most deserving team won.

All players need to perform better next week, because to lose to the Master Race in the manner we did against Hinch is unthinkable. The only player to come out of the Hinch game with total credit is Davey Vincent, whom, although only about his 5^th game of rugby ever, was an example to the rest of the team in terms of tackling, support play, strength, and his will to win. Without doubt he was Man of the Match and someone’s attitude our more seasoned players could learn form.

Team: 1. Mark McCartney, 2. Stephen Uprichard, 3. Darren McCartney, 4. Richard Cooper, 5. Stiggy Waterworth, 6. David Vincent, 7. Chick Chalmers, 8. Brian Gillespie, 9. Chris Davis, 10. Roger Gilpin (Captain), 11. Barry Dowling, 12. Rob Calvert, 13. Andy Leitch, 14. Ally McCulloch, 15. Marcus Cummings.

Man of the Match: David Vincent