ERGS Medallion 66 – Banbridge Academy 5
In perfect conditions and on a beautiful pitch, the Medallions picked up their third away win of the season. Taine Haire opened the scoring after a Banbridge scrum was won ‘against the head’, through good work by the front row of White, Beatty and Mattie Graham.
Graham was involved in the second try too, when he made a shuddering tackle to the right hand side of the Banbridge 22m line. This forced a turn over, from which the ball was moved smartly to Sam Balfour and he duly finished it on the left.
Callum Smyton then scored a hat-trick, before Brown finished off the first half with the Enniskillen side in control.
Stephen Balfour bagged two tries at the start of the second half, before Banbridge broke away for a consolation score.
Enniskillen responded with tries by Stinson and Brown. Keys and Bothwell kept the scoreboard ticking by converting eight of the ten tries.
As ever, a lot of hard work was done by the team and passes were made unselfishly to those that scored. The defence generally was good and laid a sound foundation for the performance. Mattie Wilson carried really well and made some big tackles. Gamble and Beatty were also prominent in the loose. Jason Bothwell tackled particularly well and always gets his timing right.
Nevertheless, a few certain try scoring opportunities were squandered and more control going into the tackle and better decision making will be needed to avoid that happening when it matters.
Next week sees a tough away game to Rainey Endowed.
Match day squad: Ben Davis, David Scollan, Ryan Phair, Mathew Graham, Rory Gamble, Mathew Beatty, David Stinson, Mathew Wilson, Johnny Elliott, Henry Keys, Callum Smyton, Mathew Bothwell, Eddie Keys, Hugo Graham, Stephen Balfour Taine Haire, Sam Balfour, Andrew Patton, Stuart Brown and Sam Milligan.
