CIYMS Rugby Club I XV 12 v Lisburn Rugby Club I XV 6 (Pre-season friendly): Report & Pictures

CIYMS won their last pre-season friendly 12-6 against tough opposition in Lisburn. In a game which was full of handling errors and missed tackles both sides struggled to find consistent form. Lisburn started well and dominated the first ten minutes however they only came away with 3 points.

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For the rest of the half CIYMS dominated with strong crash ball running from Mark McConkey, Steven Morton, Paddy Aiken and Lorenzo Burgess. CI’s backs had a number of opportunities to score with Andy Hodgen, Wes Henry and Thomas Horner all coming close but the game remained try-less at half time with Lisburn converting another penalty to go into the second half 6-3 up. The second half started in much the same vane with handling errors from both sides interrupting the flow of play. CI’s tackling was also, at times, suspect.

However, with ten minutes to go the perserverance paid off and Joe Taylor smashed a run up the middle, off-loading to the backs and allowing Andy Hodgen to put Wes Henry through who finished beautifully between the posts to take the black and white aces 7-6 ahead. CI got the ball back and out-half Jonny Rowan cleverly and repeatedly stuck the ball into Lisburn’s corner placing the home team under great pressure. With two minutes to go Chris “Chippy” Davidson burst through the centre of a maul and skillfully offloaded to send Duncan Gleadhill through for a second unconverted CI try.

Final score Lisburn 6, CIYMS 12. Andy hodgen was the deserved recipient of the man of the match award.