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Dromore 3's 24

Buoyed by our midweek success at Holywood, the mighty 5's met good and early to fine tune the now purring engine. With Cooper and James replaced with Davy Boyd and Pete Stewart respectively it was a pretty strong side.

The first two lineouts of the day to Dromore we stole through Davy and everything looked to be going swimmingly. With a strong wind at our backs we should have dominated more but rarely did we make good use of it. Instead after about 20 minutes a bit of defending under the posts led to Captain Calvert being involved in a fracas. Instead of our penalty to clear the lines, the ref reversed it. 3-0 Dromore.

Within another 5 minutes Dromore had a scrum following a Daly knock-on which was happening on more than a daily basis. From the scrum the out half set off on a loopy run straight through our midfield defense and under the posts. 10-0 Dromore.

So far the scores had come from our mistakes and not really any pressure. Finally Roger got us going with a long kick to the corner, Eddie takes good lineout ball, and a textbook drive puts Stevie Uprichard over, conversion missed. 10-5 Dromore at halftime.

The wind had pretty much died by the second half so we couldn't have asked for more. We just couldn't get any momentum going and within 10 minutes of the restart their outhalf did exactly the same move and again our midfield bought it. 17-5 Dromore. Time for a change so Chalmers feigned an injury so as to cover the fact he had been axed for Storey, Davy Boyd also gave way for Neil Elliott and Angus replaced Dowling B. It did create one flowing move where about twelve pairs of hands brought the ball to within the Dromore 22, only to have Storey knock on. A score then may have given us a chance but in reality, not one 5's player shone and several of the ones usually expected to make a difference had their worst games of the season.

A missed touch by Roger and their outhalf walking through several tackles for his hattrick really did it for us despite the fact we immediately scored a lovely try through Ally McCullough. 24-12 Dromore. Final Score.

Man of the match is really something that doesn't make sense. Really it can only go to the person who looked least crap. Davy Boyd had a good day at the lineout, Eddie was ok as was Wally. Ally took his try well but Stevie Uprichard probably gets it because he came least high on the crapometre.

Dick of the day had a host of nominees and if it was awarded for the worst player on the day their would be an eight way tie. Marcus had a mare, Hugh Daly won't remember this fondly, Barney and Roger, who have both had a great season probably kept their worst performances for today. Rob flailing to give away the penalty was another option, but in hindsight we should stand together and realise we were all dicks.

All pretty gloomy stuff except we had a pretty flush beer kitty and soon remembered that despite the fact that another Ravenhill dream was gone, at least we don't live in Dromore......

Team:

1. M McCartney, 2. S Uprichard, 3. P Stewart. 4. Hugh Daly, 5. Davy Boyd, 6. E Wilson, 7. S Weatherup 8. G Chalmers 9. Scotty Rob’s Mate 10. R O'Gilpin 11. A McCullough 12. R Calvert (Capt.) 13 B Leitch 14 Dowling B 15 M Cummings
Subs N Elliott, W Storey, A Mills

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