Ophir’s First XV, supported by MCW Properties, travelled last weekend to Kerr Park to meet Holywood in the Qualifying League, Section 4.
Holywood manufactured an early opportunity to take the lead but their out half fluffed a fairly simple penalty kick. Ophir got their running game together and took play to the Holywood 22. From the line out Ophir scrum half Karl Davis took on the opposition and cleverly managed to offload to back row David Lucas who crashed over the line in the corner. Full back, David Walker was unlucky to miss the difficult conversion attempt. Holywood responded very quickly and put their first points on the board with a well taken penalty. In the 30th minute it looked as if Ophir would stretch their lead when second row Neil Gray launched himself into a fantastic 40 metre charge breaking at least 8 tackles and was only stopped inches from the line. If only the rest of the Ophir pack hadn’t stood admiring the quality of the break and supported him instead, a try would surely have been inevitable. As it was, Holywood scrambled the ball into touch and the danger was cleared. Soon after, Ophir were regretting the failure to add to their score as Holywood charged up the pitch to touch down right on the touchline. The conversion looked almost impossible but the out half struck the ball perfectly to put Holywood 10 – 5 in the lead. The home team added a penalty before half time to stretch their lead to 8 points.
The second half was a complete disaster from the Ophir point of view. After just 5 minutes Holywood scored under the posts and the conversion put them 20 – 5 ahead. Then Ophir lost two players, second row Paddy McCabe with a back injury and centre, Cillian Rooney with what looked like a fractured wrist. Without replacements, that was the end of the game as a contest. Holywood easily ran in four more tries, three of them converted, before the referee blew for full time, about ten minutes early. The home team were very unhappy with that decision, thoroughly enjoying themselves against 13 men in front of their extremely vocal crowd of supporters. Nevertheless they won 46 points to 5.
Next week, both Ophir games are away from home; the Firsts at Virginia and the Seconds at Cookstown.
