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We travelled north to compete in
the Malone RFC International Festival of Rugby last weekend.
It was the fifth running of the event and 20 teams from 5
nations travelled to Belfast to participate in one of the
premier mini rugby competitions in the British Isles. The
format for the competition was 4 groups of 5 with the Top 2
in each group qualifying for the cup competition and the
remainder qualifying for the shield.
We opened the competition with a
game against the hosts Malone and ran out winners by 2 tries
to nil. That was high point of the day as our next three
games were narrow defeats leaving us in 4th place in the
pool.
The following day brought us the
new challenge of the shield competition and after some words
of wisdom from the coaching team of O'Malley and Rickard, we
were quietly confident of a good performance.
Two wins over Ravens and
Boroughmuir set us up for a pool decider with Hollywood in
which the points were shared with a 1-1 draw. Hollywood had
to score 6 tries in their final game versus Boroughmuir to
win the pool and guarantee a semi final place. They fell one
try short so the teams were tied at the top of the pool with
tries scored and try differential still leaving the teams
deadlocked. Both teams however qualified for the semi final,
Hollywood as group winner after a coin toss and Old Crescent
as best 2nd place finishers. The draw decreed that
both sides met each other in the
semi final. Playing with the elements, we took the lead and
thanks to some determined defence for our side we held our
lead to the interval. Using the elements in the second
period Hollywood again took the game to our side but some
determined defence by all our players, in particular one
crushing tackle from Sean Fitzgerald who had just come off
the bench ensured that our line held and we scored a second
try to give us a further cushion. Hollywood scored in the
dying minutes and it was a relieved set of Old Crescent
players, coaches & supporters that heard the final whistle.
Our opponents in the final were
Bishop Stortford the competition specialists with 2 cup and
one shield win in the previous 4 runnings of the tournament.
Again in the final we started the brighter and were unlucky
on two occasions not to take the lead. Our defence held firm
and it remained scoreless at the interval. In the second
half we continued to soak up the pressure put on us by
Bishop Stortford and thanks to an intercept try from Steven
Hackett, we took the lead.
There was still some rugby to be
played but we closed out the game thanks to our determined
defence. It was
the first time that an Old Crescent
side had won a trophy in the history of the competition and
it was a delighted set of players who received their medals
from Irish international Paddy Wallace.
Old Crescent Squad:
Cormac Blake (capt)
Joe Doyle
Sean Fitzgerald
Gerry Fitzpatrick
Steven Hackett
Jack Harrington
Sean Hensey
Jack Hogan
Gavin Hogan
Daniel O'Keefe
David O'Malley
Cathal Mc Hugh
Paul Mc Namara
Mark Rickard
Luke Rohan
Eoin Ryan
David Wixted
Coaches - David O'Malley & Pat Rickard. |