Saturday 13th February 2010. Report by Simon Harland
On an early spring day the sun shone down on the scene of this Junior League 4 match between Belfast High Scholl Former Pupils 2nd XV and Queen’s 3rds. The Green Island pitches overlooked by the Knockagh Monument, commemorating the fallen of WW1, inscribed with the notation:
“NOBLY YOU FOUGHT, YOUR KNIGHTLY VIRTUE PROVED
YOUR MEMORY HALLOWED IN THE LAND YOU LOVED.”
This was also an apposite subtitle for the Queen’s performance today.
Let down by one of their team mates, who was a no-show, the 14-man, makeshift Queen’s team started off brightly and within 3 minutes following an early open move to the right, managed, courtesy of an opportunistic grubber kick through the legs of the onrushing defence, to open the scoring when Armstrong fell gratefully on the ball to put the students 5 points up.
This provided the wake up call the High School team needed and bounced straight with a converted try two minutes later.
For most of the remainder of the first half BHSFP were in a dominant position but were unable to press home the advantage of the extra man and their only reward was a penalty on 37 minutes allowing them to go into the interval 10-5 to the good.
The Queen’s resolve was stiffened during the interval and they came out all guns blazing when following a drive up the mid field, after 5 minutes, Howard crashed over for the second try of the match, Scobi adding the extra points.
For the remainder of the match neither side dominated and the High School were again unable to break the spirit or endeavour of the under-strength Queen’s team who in turn were not able to capitalise on their advantage of the early minutes of the half. Queen’s regretted this as BHS crept into the lead with a penalty on 17 minutes followed by another 2 minutes from time.
Despite fighting nobly Queen’s 3rds ended on the wrong end of the 16-12 score line.
