Saturday 14 December 2002

Omagh Academicals 3XV    7

Belfast Harlequins 5XV      13

The 5's took to the road this week for the trip to Omagh. In last season's fixture the team arrived after leaving Belfast in a blizzard to assurances that the weather in Omagh was "actually OK" only to be forced to play the match in 6 inches of snow. Obviously these Tyrone folk are made of stern stuff, as several Harlequins players appeared to be suffering from hypothermia on the final whistle. Anyway, the score-line was 50 odd nil in our favour on that occasion so a convoy of cars left Belfast expecting great things.

This week's team saw four changes in key positions from that which ran out winners against Cooke two weeks ago; our captain and inspirational leader Roger had a previous appointment at Old Trafford (was he being signed to replace David Beckham?) whilst Deputy Dog Chick Chalmers was in Biarritz (was he being signed to replace Tyrone Howe?). We were also missing Barney, our very own midfield tank-buster, and our hybrid version of Jason Robinson, Marcus, at fullback. However following a late transfer flurry we managed to find more than adequate replacements in Luke McCadden, Stephen Morrow, David Denny and Andrew Nixon.

The match started brightly under the chemically enhanced light from the overshadowing factory with the 5's destroying Omagh for the whole first 5 minutes of the game. Normally this team has a tendency to lie down and take it in the first half but in this instance the pack won the first scrum of the match on Omagh's put-in and some excellent team-work resulted in Ally ducking in for a try in the corner. 5-0 to Harlequins with less than 5 minutes played and a whitewash, similar to last season, looked likely! The conversion was missed in true 5XV fashion.

Unfortunately nobody had told Omagh of their imminent rout and, although Quins enjoyed large tracts of pressure in the Omagh 22, some excellent defending prevented any breakthrough. This lack of penetration was put down mainly to slow ball coming from the forwards and all too often the extra yard was scrambled unnecessarily in an effort to take the game to the large Omagh pack.

David in particular made some solid ground and opened up a lot of space which Rob and Andrew exploited well with Barry and Ally doing some sterling work and for long periods it seemed that Omagh were living on borrowed time. To their credit Omagh kept their heads and managed to disrupt our lineout ball, resulting in us reverting to Cooper, our banker, at the front.

Disaster struck just before half-time when some sloppy defending allowed one of Omagh's centres to run virtually the full length of the pitch before off-loading for a soft try beneath the posts and all Harlequins pressure had been in vain. In the end the half-time break did not come quickly enough for the 5's after throwing away a 5-0 lead and the majority of the ball and pressure to finish the half 7-5 down.

Half-time started as usual with everyone getting their tuppence worth in whilst Barry (who was unlucky enough to be nominated captain for the day in Roger's absence) decided to befriend the referee and wandered off leaving Pete to tell us where we'd been going wrong.

Rejuvenated by the rest the second half began as a much more even affair and with both teams trying to break the relative deadlock of the first-half some savage tackles went in with Cooper popping up with his now customary bone-crunching effort. Following the game he announced that he had "only learnt how to do that in the last three games"! Just as well really.

As the game progressed the 5's gradually took control of the scrums driving Omagh off their own ball on a number of occasions, but yet again the team found it impossible to touch down behind the Omagh line with Chris who had worked well throughout deemed unlucky to be "held-up" on one occasion. Although Omagh themselves threatened neither team were able to take advantage.

This stalemate continued until following a powerful scrum out-half Luke McCadden ghosted through on the blind-side to score a superb solo effort to put Harlequins back into the lead with the touchline conversion again missed. With only a few minutes to go however, Luke kicked the crucial penalty to put more light between the two teams as Omagh now needed a converted try to win.

The game finished up with a 13-7 win to Harlequins; the team's fourth win in a row which is generally accepted as a team record. In fact rumour has it that this season is the first since the inception of the club that the 5's have won more than one game before Christmas!

Several players performed well in this less than convincing win, with Cooper and Stevie Uprichard continuing their almost psychic link-up in the lineout ably assisted by Mark and Darren who were also excellent in the scrums. Stevie Weatherup supported well in attack and defence and Stephen Morrow disrupted opposition ball and backed him up excellently. In this game the backs seemed the most threatening with Luke and David linking strongly and Andrew who filled in out of position at fullback finding space where none existed more often than not. Rob must also be noted for his mazy runs which on one occasion saw him confused with Ally as it looked like he was going to keep running until he reached the nearby sewage outlet. He must also be commended for driving home whilst feeling less than 100 per cent. Barry was unlucky not to score on a couple of occasions obviously finding the pressure of captaincy too much.

The man-of-the-match award was unanimously awarded to Luke McCadden for his excellent attacking play with a personal haul of 8 points. However, it must also be noted that he popped-up unexpectedly in the fullback spot to make a last ditch tackle when Omagh had the line and surely the game at their mercy and thanks go to all of the four lads who came in to play for us.

Dick-of-the-Day was deemed much more difficult to award as no one had really done anything wrong. So when it was suggested that the award should go to pack-leader Pete Stewart for his little misdemeanour it was difficult to defend. Picture the scene; the game is poised at 7-5 to Omagh with the clock running down. Omagh take a drop-out with Pete perfectly positioned to compete for the well flighted kick. He leaps like a salmon and lets out a loud call ensuring that his team mates are aware that it is his ball. What happened next however, can best be described as an Emile Heskey trademark "defensive" header as the ball ricocheted in a comical manner providing some light-relief to both battle-weary teams. On the whole Pete had his usual outstanding performance and it's unfortunate that it will now be remembered for this incident!

Thanks must go to Omagh Academicals RFC who treated us to a slap-up feed after the game and also let us win the raffle, which was a bottle of vodka (again). Thanks also go to Mr Denny who apparently ran the line for us on an extremely cold and dreary Omagh day. However, he will no doubt have come away, having missed the Ulster game on TV and innumerable other useful things that he could have been doing, pleased to have witnessed the workmanlike performance of Belfast's premier 5th XV.

Team: 1. Mark McCartney, 2. Stevie Uprichard, 3. Darren McCartney, 4. Pete Stewart, 5. Richard Cooper, 6. Eddie Wilson, 7. Stephen Weatherup, 8. Stephen Morrow, 9. Chris Magowan, 10. Luke McCadden, 11. Ally McCulloch, 12. Rob Calvert, 13. David Denny, 14. Barry Dowling (Captain), 15. Andrew Nixon.

Man of the Match: Luke McCadden

Dick of the Day: Pete Stewart