Ophir not so Civil at Stormont

Bolstered by the return of a number of key players, a strong Ophir team took to the impeccable Stormont pitches ably lead by club captain, Karl Davis.

Ophir kicked the game off and a strong kick chase resulted in the Civil Service catcher being tackled into touch.

The resulting Ophir line out was a carbon copy of last week's scores, with the tried and tested combination of Flood finding McCabe in the middle of the line-out. This week, veteran number 8 Neil Gray was at the back of the maul, dotting the ball down over line no more than 2 minutes into the game. It was evident as the game progressed that Gray has not lost any of his class .

This early score set the tone for the first half, with Ophir scoring a further 6 tries in the first half, securing the bonus point within the first 15 minutes of the game.

Highlight of the first half was arguably McCabe again combining with Murphy and O'Hare to steal an opposition line out, with the Service back line on the back foot, Ophir's forwards and backs swept from their own 10 metre line with a number of well timed passes and offloads which resulted in Karl Davis finding his brother Anthony on the right wing to finish off a great team score. Half time score, 37-0 to the visitors.

The second half kicked off to a background of heavy rain and swirling winds, with Service getting proceedings underway.

A number of phases after kickoff, an off the ball scuffle resulted in both teams losing a forward to the sin bin for ten minutes.

This ten minute period was somewhat of a blessing for Service, with an Ophir front row player in the bin, the resulting uncontested scrums were the only set pieces of the day that Service managed to win. The Ophir pack were in total control during line outs and scrums for the duration of the game.

With the conditions making handling difficult a number of knock-ons meant Service had a handful of opportunities from scrums to run at the Ophir back line. The defensive line, led by Ophir outhalf, James Milligan held strong, forcing turnovers with a number of big hits coming in from outside centre, Sam Harvey.

Ophir went on to score four tries in the second half, the last coming with the final play of the game. Service kicked off, having just conceded, the Ophir skipper Davis, fielded the ball inside his own 22, going on to beat 3 despairing would be Service tacklers, before offloading to Ophir openside, Jonny Murphy, who switched on the afterburners, to glide past the Service fullback, with pace to spare.

A bonus point and a second clean sheet in a row leave Ophir in 4th position in Kukri Qualifying League 3, four points behind the students of UUC.

The games come thick and fast over the festive period, with an away trip to Lurgan next Saturday, followed by a home game against Monaghan the week after.

Ophir will be hoping to keep building momentum and this bonus point win and 11 try haul can surely do no harm to confidence levels in the squad.

Final score 61-0 to Ophir.

1. Matthew Campbell
2. J.J Flood
3. Christopher Phillips
4. Phillip Adgey
5. Sean O'Hare
6. Jonathan Murphy
7. Patrick McCabe
8. Neil Gray
9. Karl Davis
10. James Milligan
11. Alan Davidson
12. David Walker
13. Sam Harvey
14. Anthony Davis
15. Christopher Harvey