2nd XV Beat Ballyclare

Monday, 19 October 2009 23:36

Academy 2nds hosted Ballyclare 3rds on what could have passed for a summers day at Roughfort. Starting with a slight wind advantage, it did not take long before Academy started another try fest. Left wing, R.Neary, scored the first, supporting a break by centre S.McCarthy (7-0,  7 mins), with No.8 K.Dobbin scoring the second after a break by prop L.Moody (22-mins). Ballyclare could only reply with a couple of penalties
(14-6, halftime).

Moody and K.Dobbin combined again at the start of the second half, Moody doing the hard work and Keith on hand to take the glory (21-6,  45 mins), again Ballyclare replied with a penalty (21-9,  50 mins).
When Academy had a penalty opportunity, they went for the jugular and kicked for touch. From the 5 metre lineout, the ball was fed to K.Dobbin on the crash, to secure his hattrick  (28-9,  53 mins).

Ballyclare kept battling, but when their backline dropped the ball in Academy’s 22, they were severly punished as centre M.Geary hacked the ball through several times before securing the ball on the halfway line. Support was there in numbers with flanker P.Ross taking the final pass to score in the corner (35-9,  60 mins).

Ballyclare replied immediately when their left winger stepped through 2-3 attempted tackles (35-14,  64 mins).

For Academy’s final try, Fullback P.Barbour fielded a clearance kick and attacked once again, K.Dobbin was in support and drew the last defender before feeding winger R.Neary for his second try and Academy’s sixth (all converted by P.Ross) (42-14,  69 mins).
In the dying minutes, Academy’s failure to deal with a high ball in their own 22 allowed Ballyclare to score a consolation try (42-19,  fulltime).

The Observer.