FSL Defence holds strong in Ballymena Academy Medallion Shield Game

Friends’ Medallion XV travelled to Ballymena on Saturday to play Ballymena Academy in the third round of the Danske Bank Medallion Shield on maybe a perfect day to play such a match as the weather and pitch conditions were excellent for such an important game.

These two Schools had not met in the Medallion Shield before, certainly not in recent memory and their pre-competitions fixtures have never featured playing each other, so Friends’ travelled respecting the History of the Schools’ Cup and Medallion Shield winning School.

 The game started well for the home side showing their dominance up front in set piece. The large home and visitor support lent their voices to the atmosphere maybe making it a nervous start for the visiting side. Only seven minutes into the game as Ballymena had worked into Friends’ 22, centre Chris Kane intercepted a Ballymena pass and ran the length of the pitch to score under the posts, converted by Friends’ Captain, Matthew Chapman, 0-7.

Ballymena Academy fought hard to get back into an attacking position but Kane's score had given Friends’ the belief they needed and their defensive play proved too strong for the home side to breach.  As the game progressed Friends’ pack took the upper hand at the collision area and on the 15 minute mark a spilled ball was picked up by Friends’ outhalf, Reece Malone who dived over the line in the corner, conversion missed, 0-12.

The large home support became more vocal and lifted the Academy side who again used their size advantage to retain the ball but Friends’ had the belief and were up to the task.  As Academy went through their well practised moves, working their way with ball in hand out of their half a miss-communication by Friends’ in midfield let Academy's attack cross the gain line and their player made his way through various attempted tackles to score an unconverted try out wide, 5-12.

This did not hinder the visitors and straight away they attacked the kick off and stopped Academy getting out of their half.  Academy had earlier been stronger in the scrums giving them a good platform but Friends’ had rectified this as the game progressed and as halftime approached from a midfield Friends’ scrum, number 8, Sam Greer broke from the back of the scrum, he had a lot of work to do as Academy's defence was up and covering well, Greer broke through 3 tackles and zig zagged his way through the scrambling defence, he was well supported by his own players which gave him options but he scored a well deserved individual try under the posts converted by Chapman, 19-5 Halftime score.

The second half started with the expected onslaught of strong attacks expected by Friends’ from such a prestigious rugby school, but they weathered the storm well and on maybe the only one of two occasions Friends’ got out of their half Kane made another intercept but was brought back by the referee due to an earlier infringement.

With 20 - 25 minutes to go Friends’ showed how the hard work they had put in on the practise pitch was going to pay off; for 15 - 20 minutes Ballymena Academy camped within 10 metres of Friends’ line, they tried everything to cross it and did on 6 occasions only  to be held up by Friends’.  Friends’ took 3 of the 5 metre scrums against the head but couldn't clear out of the half due to excellent follow up chasing by Ballymena.

During this attack on the line Ballymena received 5 penalties on the five metre line which they tapped and went only to be repelled by the resilient Friends’ Defence. Ballymena went wide but again the Friends’ drift defence was solid. Eventually with only minutes remaining Friends’ for the second time in this half of the game got into Ballymena’s half and  great work by second row, Sam Gunn, saw him pick the ball off the back of a ruck and charge 30 metres to score under the posts converted by Chapman, 5-26 Final score.

The young teams defensive display was rewarded by many of the home supporters coming over and praising the boys for their play. The reward for this win is playing Shield favourites, RBAI at Osborne Park with only this week to recover from injuries as this game had been a rearranged fixture due to weather.

A great performance by this side in this Sampson and Goliath game, one which the players and coaches were very proud off!