After a convincing win against Enniskillen Rugby Club U16s the previous week, the Medallions travelled to Banbridge Academy for a test against a traditional rugby playing school.
After a humid coach journey, the boys started off well in the first quarter with some strong carries from James Morrison and Noah Quigley which resulted in Noah bagging the first try of the day. Not long after, a strong defensive play from Jake Woods enabled him to charge down a kick from the Banbridge out-half, which he then collected and ran in for try number 2 under the posts. Solid defence around the ruck resulted in Amos Johnston making a good turn-over which got ERGS back on the attack with Eamon Greene carving up the Banbridge defence and scoring ERGS 3rd try of the day. Banbridge quickly got one try of their own back after a poor defensive read off a scrum by the ERGS backs.
The second quarter was to be a hard 20 minutes for the ERGS men as Banbridge discovered an opening in the ERGS breakdown and started to turn-over a lot of ball. Banbridge utilised their new found advantage by opting to attack of the scrum in the ERGS half. Effective Banbridge back play resulted in them scoring a second try. One positive moment in this period of Banbridge dominance was a very strong carry from Noah Quigley where he broke through the Banbridge defensive line and used his speed to outrun the full back, scoring a 50m blinder of a try. Banbridge then after another breakdown penalty launched another back play off a scrum and scored a 3rd try to make the score 4-3 at the end of the 2nd quarter.
At the start of the final quarter, Banbridge scored to make the score 4-4. After several minutes of strong defence from ERGS, they caused Banbridge to fumble the ball near their 22m line and after regaining the ball and quick hands to the wing, Billy Thompson scored to take ERGS back into the lead with not long remaining. Sadly, after another turn-over from Banbridge, they equaled with seconds remaining and the game finished 5-5.
This was exactly the type of game the ERGS boys needed as it has shown the areas they need to work on over the summer during the pre-season. Exciting times ahead for this team as they build for the new season and cup competition in October/November.
