Academy took their place in the annual Ophir 7’s at Magowan playing fields on Saturday.
After arriving late at 11.30 the tournament got started at 12.15????? Academy in a tough group along side Ballyclare,Lisburn,Carrick and Civil Service,Academy got off to a winning start with a win over Ballyclare scoring 4 tries to clares 3 or 2 keep reading….unfortunately losing Gavin Harper to a knee injury hitting a divot on the new pitch!!! A short break then Lisburn with another win 5 tries to 2 great performance from the lads.
With the sunshine breaking through the clouds and a large Academy contingent turning out to watch our next opponents were a big and physical Carrick side,playing into their hands slightly we dug deep to score 3 tries the same as Carrick but lost out on conversions kicked nothing to worry about.
The pitches now officially opened the last pool game against Civil Service was a formality scoring 6 tries to CS 0 . With one pool game left Lisburn required 7 tries against Ballyclare to win the pool outright, Lisburn scored 6 against Clare who had nothing to play for,it went to the judges who put Academy pool winners then on a technicality changed to Lisburn on tries concided Academy 8 Lisburn7. With the tournament running over an hour late must have been down to us being late NOT the format changed,so it went straight to finals and Academy were up against the hosts Ophir in the plate final.
The game was again against a big physical team and Academy found it difficult to keep possession and were down by a couple of tries at half time,after pulling a try back in the second half academy pressed but Ophir went on to score a couple more tries and deserved the win.
Overall it was a great day out with Academy playing some great rugby scoring 19 tries,with a mixture of forwards,backs,experience and inexperience those who turned out done the club and themselves proud.
Well done especially to the newcomers Chris Phillips,Joel McMullan,Ryan Taggart and Ben Devlin for playing their part in a great days rugby!!!!!!!
Thanks to everyone who turned out to give their support.
George
