Towns\u2019 Cup Omagh 19 Larne 10
\nby Kyle Porter<\/p>\n
Omagh Accies registered two penalty tries in the last 15 minutes to finally see off a very committed Larne outfit<\/p>\n
and progress to the quarter finals of the Towns\u2019 Cup. The weather was the real winner on <\/p>\n
the day, making conditions very difficuly with the lineouts a virtual lottery, while the picth was heavy <\/p>\n
and cut up badly as the game went on.<\/p>\n
Indeed, it was a measure of both Larnes\u2019 effort that they scored a fine try, keeping the ball for an age in <\/p>\n
challenging conditions, but also the maturity of a young home side, which did not panic despite being<\/p>\n
10-7 down with 15 minutes to play.<\/p>\n
Omagh played up the hill in the first period and rarely threatened the halfway line, never mind the <\/p>\n
scoreboard. They put a couple of phases together, but with handling very tricky and conditions <\/p>\n
underfoot not lending itself to free flowing champagne rugby, they were on the back foot for the half.<\/p>\n
Even a poor kick went 60 metres, such as the power of the wind, and it was always going to be a game <\/p>\n
of two halves with counter attacking from deep and running from the 22 never an option playing into <\/p>\n
the wind.<\/p>\n
Alistair Beckett made a neat break but the last pass failed to connect with fellow winger Andy <\/p>\n
McFarland, while Lee Murphyput in a well controlled grubber kick which was well gathered by Alan <\/p>\n
Heaney. The vice captain looked to offload but was tackled from behind in the motion of passing and the <\/p>\n
ball was knocked on.<\/p>\n
A couple of driving mauls gained territory but were too far out and ran out of steam before Omagh <\/p>\n
could reach the try line.<\/p>\n
Larne used the wind to good effect, but will regret not taking their chances with five penalties missed by <\/p>\n
the visititng kicker. He had the distance but never the direction in what was very difficult conditions for <\/p>\n
kicking for posts. He did register one score through, with the Glynn men going into the break 3-0 up.<\/p>\n
The half back combination of Lee Murphy and Stuart McCain used the wind well in the second half, <\/p>\n
pinning Larne deep throughout, while David Ward used his trusty left boot to good use to change the<\/p>\n
angles and drive his team forward. <\/p>\n
Playing the lines well, the Accies set up their first scoring chance of the day. They were awarded a scrum <\/p>\n
five metres out, and in the ascendancy all afternoon, they drove foreward only for Larne to drop the <\/p>\n
scrum resulting in another penalty. Scrumming again, Omagh drove their opponents over the line but<\/p>\n
were denied the try when a home back dived in at the side with the referee having no option but to <\/p>\n
award a penalty try. Ward added the conversion.<\/p>\n
Hoping to push on and seal the win, the Co. Tyrone men were rocked by the best phase of possession <\/p>\n
all afternoon. Larne controlled the ball, used the pick and go to good effect and recycled well, gaining <\/p>\n
small chunks of yardage each time. Close to the line, the scrum half went blind on a wide arc before <\/p>\n
slipping an inside pass to their No.8 on the burst and he went through some lacklustre tacking around <\/p>\n
the fringes to go over for a well deserved try. The conversion was added for the visitors to lead 10-7 <\/p>\n
with 15 minutes to go.<\/p>\n
Refusing to panic, the halfbacks kept the visitors hemmed in and kicked a penalty to touch some 10 <\/p>\n
metres out. The lineout was secored and the pack got the drive on. The maul was pulled down a few <\/p>\n
metres short with Omagh choosing to scrum from the resulting penalty. Again they drove forward only <\/p>\n
for their opponents to offend again with the referee having no option but to award another penalty try. <\/p>\n
Ward added the conversion.<\/p>\n
David Thompson came on with 10 minutes to go replacing Stuart Lyons at loose head and had an <\/p>\n
eventful 5 minutes before being asked to leave proceedings for hands in the ruck with 5 minutes to go. <\/p>\n
Louis Whitworth has recently returned to the Accies and it was good to see him in the colours again, <\/p>\n
playing well in the back row, the boost the squad needed after losing club skipper Andrew Ferguson for <\/p>\n
the season.<\/p>\n
Stuart McCain closed the scoring with the final play of the game when, in time served Accies scrum half <\/p>\n
fashion, he noticed the cover defence tied in the tight and broke blind from 5 metres out to scamper <\/p>\n
over to touch down and put the final touch on a good move. The conversion was added.<\/p>\n
Omagh wil be relived to defeat a very plucky and well organised Larne outfit in tough conditions and <\/p>\n
have no injuries to report ahead of their next match, a league encounter against Limavady at home bext <\/p>\n
weekend.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Towns\u2019 Cup Omagh 19 Larne 10 by Kyle Porter Omagh Accies registered two penalty tries in the last 15 minutes to finally see off a very committed Larne outfit and progress to the quarter finals of the Towns\u2019 Cup. The weather was the real winner on the day, making conditions very difficuly with the lineouts […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[401],"tags":[5519,5304,17230,5816],"class_list":["post-65533","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-omagh","tag-cup","tag-notes","tag-omagh","tag-rfc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intouchrugby.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65533","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intouchrugby.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intouchrugby.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intouchrugby.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intouchrugby.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=65533"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.intouchrugby.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65533\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":65535,"href":"https:\/\/www.intouchrugby.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65533\/revisions\/65535"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intouchrugby.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65533"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intouchrugby.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=65533"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intouchrugby.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=65533"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}