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