Saturday 16 November 2002

Belfast Harlequins 5XV    13

Portadown 4XV                    3

Two weeks rest, with the 5s only recent outing being a freezing on gate duty at the AIL match, meant no major injury worries and selection being a doddle with all players available. Well, except for Wally who decided another week off would be nice. He maybe has his eye on being a serial car park attendant at Deramore. This cry off resulted in Wayne Storey getting a call up to the team he later described, after a few hours in the bar with us, as having "great camerameradeery". I think he meant that he enjoyed himself.

Off the pitch the 5s never have a problem with camaraderie but on the pitch it was refreshing to humble a side that has beaten us both home and away for the past two seasons. With no ex-Inter Provincial players that could be identified, the Portadown team resembled only a shadow of the side that we have encountered previously. However, as always they put in a gutsy performance and looked dangerous when they ran the ball wide to a couple of very talented three-quarter players. They also included a club traitor who seems to have ended up in Portadown via Ballyclare. Niall Westland even had the audacity to wear his old NIFC socks stating that he felt wearing his Quins socks would be provocative!

Portadown took the lead in the first few minutes with a straight forward penalty but never really looked like scoring for the rest of the first half. In fact, it took the first half for us to settle down and realise that not only were we in the middle of a league game but also that we could actually win it. There were some good pieces of play by us but generally it was not a very entertaining 40 minutes, with no scores for us and a pathetic display of goal kicking misses.

Only 3-0 down at half time, with the wind and slight slope in our favour for the second half the 5s rallied and started to really apply pressure from the kick-off. With absolutely no faith whatsoever in our goal kicking ability, Chick soon overruled a decision to go for goal and opted for a kick to the corner. This lack of faith was replaced by the faith in our line-out where we once again took the ball cleanly and it was Chick himself who finished off a fine forwards try with powerful break. 5-3 to us as of course the conversion was missed.

Portadown responded in typical fashion and got stuck in. Their strong rucking ability provided some good ball to their backs, who when it hit the right players made some very serious attacks towards our line. Our defence held firm and we generally had the territorial advantage through kicks that continuously pinned them back and demoralised their pack.

About 10 minutes from the end the Quins forwards again provided good ball to the backs and Wayne, popping up outside the half-backs broke the gain line. This released the rest of the backs who with speed and excellent handling finished off a well-worked try with Barry touching down in the corner.

The game was almost over but we had our recurrent habit of ‘snatching defeat from the jaws of victory’ in mind. We therefore kept up the pressure and pinned Portadown back into the corners and following a series of plays where we looked like scoring again we finally got a penalty that was converted - it was bang in the middle of pitch and only 10 yards out from the posts.

This killed the game off and the final score remained at 13-3. It was particularly pleasing to see the forwards totally take apart Portadown up front and in the line-outs and scrums the 5s were truly masterful and the area where this game was really won. The McCartney’s provided a rock solid scrum; Uprichard had the game of his season, throwing accurately and had some excellent plays in the loose; Cooper was outstanding jumping at 2, in the scrums, and with an exceptional work rate, popped up around the park to make a number of surging breaks; the marauding Frew had his normal high performance game until someone must have levelled an elephant gun at him, as for some reason he unusually left the pitch at half-time injured; the back-row were simply superb with Chick in particular playing out of his skin.

The backs had an erratic performance with some moments of brilliance followed by some appalling handling. However, the defence that our centre pairing put in was of the top order. The highlight being when a try for Portadown looked certain Rob pummeled their attacker followed by Barney’s hit, lift, drive and spike assault on their rather large number 8. That Portadown player didn’t attempt it again. Also, worth mentioning was Barry Dowling’s performance that was by far the best of his season. He totally had the measure of his opposite number, never missed a tackle and tactically took the right option every time with some brilliant kicking when required. The backs on the whole played ok with everyone contributing positively, but on the day were simply overshadowed by the forwards’ performance.

Roger was spared the blushes for a poor kicking performance - even though he claimed he had been ‘practising’ - by Rob who was awarded the unsavoury Dick of the Day title. Rob’s outrageous moment came when he ignored a two man overlap and with pure greed and glory in his eyes tried to sell a telegraphed dummy, which even a blind man would not have bought. At only 5 yards short of their line he was duly thumped back by at least two players, much to the disgust and all too common grumbling of Marcus who was certain to score a simple try.

Man of the Match was more difficult to decide with Chick and Barry being strong contenders. However, Richard Cooper was the ultimate choice having had a faultless game throughout.

Thanks again go to those that came out in support, although one of them may have been a Branch Assessor and also to both Tom & Gerry for running the touch lines. That’s all folks!

Team: 1. Mark McCartney, 2. Stephen Uprichard, 3. Darren McCartney, 4. Richard Cooper, 5. Roger Frew, 6. Eddie Wilson, 7. Wayne Storey, 8. Chick Chalmers, 9. Chris Magowan, 10. Roger Gilpin, 11. Ally McCulloch, 12. Rob Calvert, 13. Andrew Leitch, 14. Barry Dowling, 15. Marcus Cummings.