OPHIR SECONDS WIN AT THE VALLEY

Ophir kicked off against a strong wind and immediately found themselves under serious pressure from the visitors. Lurgan worked their way up the touchline and the winger broke free. Only a last ditch tackle stopped a certain score but from the ensuing ruck, Lurgan’s out half put in a brilliant chip ahead and beat the sleepy Ophir defence to the touchdown. The conversion was good and the visitors led 7 – 0. But Ophir fought back from the restart – recycling the ball through several phases until full back Andy Finlay latched on to a superb pass at speed and crashed over the line to score near the touchline. Scrum half Alan Davidson narrowly missed the conversion attempt but Ophir were back in the game. Three minutes later Davidson made amends for the missed conversion with an amazing penalty from the opposition 10 metre line. Against the strong wind he kept the ball low and drilled it just over the bar to give the home team a one point lead. For the next 10 minute
s Ophir had to defend strongly as Lurgan fought to regain the lead, but disaster struck for the visitors when their number 8 limped off the field with a bad leg injury, to take no further part in the game. On the stroke of half time Ophir managed to take advantage of the extra man, winning clean ball from a 6th phase of play and allowing centre, Johnny Murphy to scythe through three tackles to touch down near the posts. Unfortunately for Alan Davidson, the ball blew off the kicking tee and he could not take the conversion. At the break, Ophir led 13 – 7.

Heavy and continuous rain greeted the teams at the restart. With the wind behind them in the second half, and a man advantage, Ophir might have been expected to overpower the visitors but it was Lurgan who started well, taking the game to Ophir and dominating territory. For the first 10 to 15 minutes they camped in the Ophir 22, but crucially failed to turn their superiority into points. Ophir fought back, unusually in the circumstances, not using the wind but trying to keep the ball in hand. A number of good breaks from John Condell, Bobby Press and Jonjo O’Neill brought them to the Lurgan 22 and when the ball was slipped to centre Chris Phillips he crashed over close enough to the posts to make Alan Davidson’s conversion reasonably comfortable. Lurgan then suffered a further blow to their morale with the loss of a second player with a head injury. For most of the remainder of the game it was a comedy of errors with turnovers, knocks on, dropped passes and missed k
icks. But Lurgan were tremendous, despite the setback of playing with 13 men; still taking the game to Ophir, who try as they might could not put any more points on the board. Both teams entertained the soaked spectators with their willingness to attack, ball in hand, at every opportunity The final score was sweet revenge for Ophir’s last season home meeting against Lurgan, turning a 13 – 20 defeat into a 20 – 7 victory. Man of the Match was Johnny Murphy who as well as scoring his try, barely missed a tackle all afternoon.