Dromore Rugby Club II XV v CIYMS Rugby Club II XV: Report & Pictures

Dromore 2′s played CIYMS 2′s at home on Saturday and lost 13 3.

Dromore started the game with the wind advantage but were frustrated by a strong CI defence. After less than ten minutes Justin Savage had to leave the pitch having popped his shoulder.
FOR MORE PICTURES CLICK HERE
This resulted in uncontested scrums and with no substitutes at this level Dromore a man short for the remainder of the game. The home side were using the wind to keep the visitiors pinned in their own half but a series of attacks resulted in only one score, a penalty converted by John Russell making his come back after a long term injury. CI’s strong running backs had a number of opportunites to score but a mixture of good Dromore defence and poor decision making on the final pass by the opposition left the score at 3 0 to Dromore at half time.

CI opened the second half and soon had Dromore pinned in their own half using the strong wind to good advantage but again their backs squandered chance after chance. Eventually CI converted a penalty to level the score. From the restart CI immediately pressurised the Dromore line resulting in a try out wide after the home side had run out of defenders. The conversion was added to bring the score to 13 3 to CI.

Dromore were finding it difficult to get out of their own half and on each occasion they mounted some pressure CI responded with a strong defensive effort. When Jamie McFarland was attacked on the ground and in the ensueing melee Kyle Copeland was red carded by the referee. With a number of players involved from both sides it was difficult to understand why the Dromore captain was the only player to leave the field.

Down to 13 men Dromore knew they would be up against it for the remainder of the game but they responded well to the set back and continued to try and take the game to CI. They were aided when the CI hooker was also red carded for a spear tackle. The game drifted to a close and a disappointing home defeat. This was a spirited display by a young and inexperienced Dromore team and they have a lot of positives to take from the game.

Pictures courtesy of Paul McFarland.