Ards 2nd XV 15 – 30 Dungannon 2nd XV

Ards seconds hosted Dungannon on Saturday. Dungannon opened the scoring after only five minutes with a penalty directly in front of the posts. Ards struck back from the restart as Gary Presho collected ball from the poorly fielded kick. The forwards drove deep into Dungannon territory and after some good play between backs and forwards Ards levelled the score with a penalty kick from the trusted boot of Paul Cox.
At around the twenty minute mark a well placed kick by Cox put Ards deep into the opposition 22. From good defensive play Ards forced Dungannon to knock on the ball resulting in a scrum. Number 8 Jaime Stinson picked up from the base of the scrum and drove forward to within five meters of the line. The forwards pounded the Dungannon defence and from a loose ball Josh McKee popped the ball up to Adam PK McKee who cut back to score just right of the posts.
This spurred Dungannon into action and although Ards continued to play with vigour the visitors managed to run in two more tries before the half time whistle leaving the score at 17 – 10 in the visitors favour.

The second half started with Ards back on the attack. From a set move at the lineout big Jamie Stinson pealed round the front only to be bundled into touch as he touched the ball down. The next 15 to 20 minutes turned out to be much the same as the first with the home side playing some good structured rugby while the visitors managed to break through to run in another two tries and convert a second penalty. The final 10 minutes of the match however were all Ards as they attacked again and again looking to close the gap on Dungannon. Finally, from a lineout on the visitors 10 meter line the Ards forwards drove deep into the Dungannon half and put the ball through the hands to send full back Gareth Wilson in for the final score of the game.

This is probably the first time this season where the team have worked the phases and played the game plan for a full 80 minutes. Credit must go to every one of these guys who defended aggressively against a very useful Dungannon team. Although there were problems at the set pieces the forward pack worked tirelessly at the ruck and Maul dominating the opposition for large spells of the game. There is no doubt that a number of these guys will be competing for a place on the first team over the incoming weeks.

The Ards side were: J. Millar, G, Quinn, Colin McClure, G. Presho, J. McEwen, A. Hazard, A. McKee, J. Stinson, J. McKee, P. Cox, K. McFarland, Chris McClure, T. Devlin, A. Crawford, G. Wilson.