Ophir Men Finally Get Revenge for Beardgate

On Saturday 6th January, the Ophir lads travelled across the road to the Cloughlan, to return to a Ballyclare 3’s team that stole the points in the league game last year. Controversially Nigel Murray could not make the fixture due to fear of another tug at his ever growing mane on his chin.

The strongest team of the season lined up, and for the 1st time had the strength of both Dwayne and Anthony Davis who needed to fulfil his 4 match a season clause in his contract. Also making his debut for the Oph’s was Oliver Browne who had arrived back to NI from
University in Scotland.

The action started out with Alan Davison kicking off allowing the chasing pack to put some pressure early on. With a very mobile back row and not a beard in sight, Daniel McNeil, Josh Collins and the evergreen Neil Gray were making big tackles across the pitch to stop Ballyclare gaining ground.

Unfortunately due to some questionable decisions by the referee, Ophir found themselves on the wrong end of a 7-0 scoreline. Dusting themselves off as Ricky Press have some words of wisdom to the lads. That seem to do the trick, as Mark Broadhurst lead the charge towards the Ballyclare line by showing his blistering pace.

This inspired the lads to step up a gear and not long after we’re in a great attack position. Alan Davison took this opportunity to dust off the old playbook for the scrum. Scrum inside the 22 metre, Neil Gray picks and passes to Dave McIlhenney at 9 who offloads to Dwayne to crash through the middle. Thanks to the pack for setting the stage for Dave, who seen the front row standing out on the blindside wing taking a break. Dave shoots a pass to Ricky Press who moves it out to Chris Phillips on the wing (as usual) to finish a great set piece move, and scoring close to the posts.

Defensively this Ophir side were unbeatable as Jamie Mawhinney as normal hit everything in sight along with Anthony Davis hitting his signature dump. Ben Lowry really stood out on the wing, no one was getting past him, Ben was also responsible for stopping a try and getting the resulting player sin binned. He even had a few half chances for a break throughout the game.

Chris Phillips and Mark Broadhurst challenging the team to turn the screw and up the intensity by making 20 and 30 metre runs respectively. Giants James McClintock and Jonny Gray filled the 2nd row spots, both secured the ball with their strength in the ruck and contact area. This allowed Ophir to build momentum and again found themselves in a great attacking position. Dave McIlhenney took control after the ball slowed down a few metres out, he decided to go himself powering over the line to put the visiting side ahead.

Leading up to half time. 1 minute to half time and while you would forgive the lads for wanting to kick it out to signal half time. Alan Davison pulling strings as normal called another set piece. Another set piece that paid off as Jonny McKinney went against the call and fed Chris Phillips to blast through 3 defenders to put the Ophir boys further ahead.

After half time Ophir continued their defensive duties with Matt Campbell making some notable tackles and the lads spent most of the second half in their own 22. However following a great team move, Oliver Browne could not latch on to the final pass which would have given him a dream debut.

The Ophir lads are now undefeated in 2018 and secured it with a great performance. They travel to Portadown next week and would welcome any support.

MotM: Mark Broadhurst

Team:

1. Matt Campbell

2. Ricky Press

3. Chris Phillips

4. James McClintock

5. Jonny Gray

6. Daniel McNeil

7. Josh Collins

8. Neil Gray

9. Dave McIlhenney

10. Alan Davison

11. Ben Lowry

12. Dwayne

13. Anthony Davis

14. Jamie Mawhinney

15. Mark Broadhurst

Sub. Oliver Browne

Sub. Michael Doyle

Sub. Jonny McKinney