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4th XV match report - Sat 27th Oct 2012
STEPHEN NUTT30 Oct 2012 - 11:02
Black Knights chop the 'Evergreens' down to size!!
“Black Knights step up a gear against Ballynahinch "Evergreens”
Following on from the defeat of Bangor Griffens last Saturday, the Black Knights continued their winning ways with a comprehensive 60- nil defeat of a young and committed Ballynahinch 7ths at a sun kissed Ballymacarran Park.
From the kick off Ards put hinch under pressure with the substantially older and heavier Ards front five dominating the set piece and young flankers Sam McVeigh and Ben Smith (ably backed by the indomitable Andy Crozier at no 8 ) lively at the breakdown. From broken play directly in front of the posts the ball somehow ended up in Phil Gills hands. Looking as comfortable on the ball as he does on a woman , he flapped the ball to scrum half Andy Matchet who burst through the bemused Ballynahinch defensive line to score under the posts. Unfortunately the conversion was uncharacteristically missed by Nial Mulholland however he made amends two minutes later with a well taken penalty. 8 nil to Ards.
Ards domination of the first half continued as forwards and backs combined for a number of flowing moves .With Ben Smith and Andy Crozier creating space with some superb forward carries , the youthful ards backline, orchestrated by silver haired maestro cyril stocker at out half,were now fire ,with the pace of the ards back three of stephen mckee, andy wright and nial Mulholland causing the hinch defence all sorts of problems . 4 tries followed in quick succession, 2 from mckee and 2 from Mulholland (who also added a further 2 conversions) leaving hinch shell shocked and 29 nil down.
Ards rounded off the first half with a superb solo try from young flanker sam mveigh leaving the score at the break 36 nil. Sam has really upped his game over the past month and looks a great prospect.
In the half time huddle captain rab irwin asked the team to not take the foot off the peddle and to give their first truly 80 minute performance of the season .
Despite a number of substitutions The team duly obliged and started the second half as they finished the first , attacking the hinch line from the kick off.tries from ben smith and andy crozier (who had his best game of the season) quickly followed . unfortunately at this stage veteran prop geoff garrett sustained a bad ankle injury however he was ably replaced by Stu “Dump Truck “ Stephenson. Sustaining some scurrilous abuse from the home supporters about his ability to touch his toes , Stu forced them to eat their words with an explosive burst to the hinch try line. From the resulting quick ruck the ball flashed to the wing where young matt mcmullan picked the ball from his boot straps to score in the corner. From the kick off Ards copper bottomed their domination of the match with a final try from Ben “Nick Williams” Smith, converted by Mulholland to leave the final score 60 nil.
This was a great performance by the Black Knights against a Ballynahinch side who refused to give up. Particularly pleasing was the defence which for the second week in a row did not leak any points and was characterised by some great bone crunching tackles by centres andy todd and mat aitken. It was also great to see the younger players in the side benefiting from the experience of the “old hands” in the team, in particular a man of the match performance from sam mcveigh .Andy Wright was a rock at full back and Niall mulhooland , in only his third game of rugby, had another fine game contributing a personal tally of 20 points to the final score. Andy Matchett, obviously enthused by the performances of the youngsters in the team , was even seen leaving the pitch with dirty shorts (though it was believed that this was as a result of a slip coming out of the changing room rather than on the field of play).
Following on from the defeat of Bangor Griffens last Saturday, the Black Knights continued their winning ways with a comprehensive 60- nil defeat of a young and committed Ballynahinch 7ths at a sun kissed Ballymacarran Park.
From the kick off Ards put hinch under pressure with the substantially older and heavier Ards front five dominating the set piece and young flankers Sam McVeigh and Ben Smith (ably backed by the indomitable Andy Crozier at no 8 ) lively at the breakdown. From broken play directly in front of the posts the ball somehow ended up in Phil Gills hands. Looking as comfortable on the ball as he does on a woman , he flapped the ball to scrum half Andy Matchet who burst through the bemused Ballynahinch defensive line to score under the posts. Unfortunately the conversion was uncharacteristically missed by Nial Mulholland however he made amends two minutes later with a well taken penalty. 8 nil to Ards.
Ards domination of the first half continued as forwards and backs combined for a number of flowing moves .With Ben Smith and Andy Crozier creating space with some superb forward carries , the youthful ards backline, orchestrated by silver haired maestro cyril stocker at out half,were now fire ,with the pace of the ards back three of stephen mckee, andy wright and nial Mulholland causing the hinch defence all sorts of problems . 4 tries followed in quick succession, 2 from mckee and 2 from Mulholland (who also added a further 2 conversions) leaving hinch shell shocked and 29 nil down.
Ards rounded off the first half with a superb solo try from young flanker sam mveigh leaving the score at the break 36 nil. Sam has really upped his game over the past month and looks a great prospect.
In the half time huddle captain rab irwin asked the team to not take the foot off the peddle and to give their first truly 80 minute performance of the season .
Despite a number of substitutions The team duly obliged and started the second half as they finished the first , attacking the hinch line from the kick off.tries from ben smith and andy crozier (who had his best game of the season) quickly followed . unfortunately at this stage veteran prop geoff garrett sustained a bad ankle injury however he was ably replaced by Stu “Dump Truck “ Stephenson. Sustaining some scurrilous abuse from the home supporters about his ability to touch his toes , Stu forced them to eat their words with an explosive burst to the hinch try line. From the resulting quick ruck the ball flashed to the wing where young matt mcmullan picked the ball from his boot straps to score in the corner. From the kick off Ards copper bottomed their domination of the match with a final try from Ben “Nick Williams” Smith, converted by Mulholland to leave the final score 60 nil.
This was a great performance by the Black Knights against a Ballynahinch side who refused to give up. Particularly pleasing was the defence which for the second week in a row did not leak any points and was characterised by some great bone crunching tackles by centres andy todd and mat aitken. It was also great to see the younger players in the side benefiting from the experience of the “old hands” in the team, in particular a man of the match performance from sam mcveigh .Andy Wright was a rock at full back and Niall mulhooland , in only his third game of rugby, had another fine game contributing a personal tally of 20 points to the final score. Andy Matchett, obviously enthused by the performances of the youngsters in the team , was even seen leaving the pitch with dirty shorts (though it was believed that this was as a result of a slip coming out of the changing room rather than on the field of play).
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