Hinch clinch victory at Ballymacairn
It was effectively a ‘club side’ featuring players from all 4 Grosvenor teams that travelled to Ballymacairn Park to do battle with high-flying Hinch 2s .
Hinch alicadoos were happy to admit that 12 of their side had played for Hinch’s 1st XV in a 40 point win at Instonians on Thursday evening, which further brings in to question the validity of the Conference League. Despite the disparity in fitness, physique and experience Grosvenor put in a superb first half performance, repelling wave after wave of Hinch attacks with wholly committed tackling and well organised defence. Unfortunately Peter McKeown picked up an ankle injury early on and was effectively eliminated as an attacking threat for the rest of the day. Patches opened the scoring with a well struck penalty from 30 metres out. 3-0. Hinch fought back and got a penalty of their own. 3-3. Hinch continued to enjoy the lion’s share of posession and Grosvenor continued to knock them back with Jamie White, Chris Quinn and Davy Egner leading the charge in the backs and the back row of Andy Gregg, James Senior and Fra in the thick of the forward action. Remarkably it was Grosvenor who scored next with another penalty to take a 6-3 lead at half-time.
Craig Steele spent the break receiving attention from the paramedics for a rib injury and was reduced to walking wounded for the rest of the game. Hinch started the second half strongly with two tries in quick succession and Grosvenor faced an even bigger uphill struggle when Andy Gregg was yellow carded for deliberate knock-on. Hinch took immediate advantage of Grosvenor’s depleted pack and tiring limbs, scoring two push-over tries to pass the 30 point mark. However Mark McAnally put some wind back into the Grosvenor sails with one thunderous tackle that stopped a Hinch attack dead in it’s tracks and one equally thunderous charge upfield out of defence. Hinch managed a couple of tries at the death to run out winners by 44-6.
Normally it is hard to take anything positive from a defeat by thirty odd points but Grosvenor can be very proud that a) they fulfilled the fixture in the midst of an injury crisis and with an important league match looming on Wednesday night, and b) that they played with such character and team spirit throughout.
Man of the match goes to Jack Adams who coped well with the behemoths of Hinch’s front row in the scrums and was superb around the park in the loose.
