To their credit however, the whole squad made themselves available bar 3 injured players, giving us a squad of 14 for this morning to play a Dungannon who had scrambled together 13 of their own.

This Ards squad is still very much so in the learning stage of their rugby journey, many of whom have not played rugby much more than a year, if even, so to finish off with 4 tried and some superb defensive work with a number of try saving tackles from Harley, Kai F, Joe and Tomass in particular, showed just how far this squad has come in a very short time.

The Young Ards Men started the game receiving the kickoff with Scrabo to their backs and after a fantastic catch, Captain Noah B caught the Dungannon lads still half asleep and ran in under the posts within the first 10 seconds. While it may have seemed like the perfect start, unfortunately the opposite was true, with the solo effort giving the men in black a false sense of security and a wake up call to their opposition with the away team turning the screw and their influential 10 running a well oiled back line well. The remainder of the half saw Ards up against it and while there were some forrays into the Comber Road half of the pitch, the attacking play was snuffed out be some opportunistic defensive work from Dungannon, securing turnovers from isolated ball carriers on a handful of occasions before then breaking up the pitch to finish clinically.

Half time heard pleas for the formation of a 'Black wall' to be formed, ensuring all players found their space in that wall and noone stood behind it and, while it took a few minutes into the second half to work it out, it was starting to take shape by the end of the game. But this positional awareness allowed for a more organised and efficient defense, resulting in Ards getting more possession and being able to show their attacking skill with the elder statesmen of the squad, Noah, Will and Kai leading by example in supporting the ball carrier and recycling the ball well.

While every player stood up and showed a huge improvement on the last match, special mentions must go out to Will who was nominated as Man Of The Match by U18 captain and assistant coach Billy, for his all round game. But also three players who's performances could very easily have gone under the radar as they aren't necessarily the 'flashy' type of player who will be noticed doing the nice things, but the complete opposite.
Jude, Harley and Joe, who it must be said, are all still finding their right positions, put in huge shifts around the park today.
Jude, who only started playing rugby at this year's summer camp, always gives 100% from the engine room of the second row and shows his athleticism in hassling and harrying the opposition wherever they may be in the park
Harley wore the no8 shirt today, but played on the flank having been stationed on the wing for previous games and boy did he look every part of a seasoned back row. The number of tackles Harley made were genuinely uncountable, and varied from a simple forwards 'collision' in the right, to chasing back 70m to make the cover tackle late on. While he has still to learn the poachers element to the trade in the rucks, it was fantastic to see he hasn't lost the killer instinct when finding the line as he topped his performance off with our final try today.
And then Joe, who has found himself playing all number of positions so far this season, started in 15 today, but it's clear to see his future lies in a short with a number far smaller! At half time, with the Dungannon 10 bossing play, Joe along with Kai S who himself is just returning from a few bad injuries, were given the task of hunting him down and stopping him play, which the did with ease in the second half. Joe's ability to listen to instructions and execute them will see him go far!

Well done to all the boys today, in both teams. In reality, while the scoreline dictates that only 1 team won, the truth is, both teams can celebrate with their aches and pains tonight having both shown a fantastic appetite and passion for our beautiful game!