UlsterNet.co.uk

Resilient Dalriada march on!

Thursday, 2 February 2012

The scoreboard says it all with Dalriada’s victory over Regent House giving them a home tie against Bangor in the fourth round of the Northern Bank Schools’ Cup.

Dalriada 1st XV.........................10
Regent House 1st XV..................0

DALRIADA produced a mature and resilient performance to defeat Regent House in Saturday's Schools Cup third round at St James' Road.
The victory was based upon Dalriada's strong and defiant defence and dominance at the set piece as the home team ground out an impressive victory despite the narrow margin.
The game started evenly with Regent dominating possession. However, the Dalriada defence gave little ground to the visitors who could find no way through, but their impatience when in possession meant neither team controlled the opening stages.
But the home side did their account with a penalty by full back John Laughlin. Dalriada had worked their way into the Regent twenty-two through a fine kick by out-half Timmy Emerson. The penalty came after fine work from Angus Jinks at the breakdown, forcing Regent into committing the offence.
And just before the end of the first half, Dalriada scored the game's only try. Beginning to dominate the game, Dalriada broke into the Regent twenty-two again, where the visitors' defence committed an offence at the breakdown, but the home team used the advantage well sending centre Johnny Allen crashing underneath the posts after fine work again by Emerson and captain Matt Glenn. Laughlin added the conversion to leave the half time score at 10-0 to Dalriada.
Regent House did have an number of opportunities to get on the scoreboard both before half time and after the restart, and no doubt they will be left to rue those missed penalties, which could have swung the game in their favour.
However, these chances were not taken leaving Dalriada in a strong position and despite the home side not adding to their tally in the second half they continued to dominate through their strong defence, disrupting Regent possession at the scrum. Regent continued to threaten, with a clear line break by winger Jonny Carmichael being the highlight. His run led to a period of Regent dominance in which they got over the whitewash only to be held up by full back Laughlin. The resultant five metre scrum was taken against the head by hooker Andy Marks allowing Dalriada to clear their lines and breathe a sigh of relief.
This proved to be a pivotal moment as Dalriada were inspired by their defensive effort whilst Regent seemed to be deflated by their failure to score. Ultimately from this point Dalriada closed out the victory through good ball retention in the pack. Jinks' work at the breakdown once again allowed a Dalriada shot at goal but Laughlin was unable to add to the home team's tally.
The game ended with Dalriada closing out the win to seal a fourth round home game against Bangor Grammar. Despite not being as dramatic a victory as the previous round against Portora, it goes down as a very satisfying win for the home side who are finally beginning to play to their potential.

Subscribe to read full newspaper »

Send this page to a friend »