Match Report: Bangor Grammar School 59-5 Belfast Metropolitan College
Bangor Grammar School vs Belfast Metropolitan College
On Saturday morning, Belfast Metropolitan College travelled to Gransha for a morale destroying encounter with Bangor Grammar School's 1st XV.
The hosts, fresh off a narrow defeat to Royal School Armagh, took practically no time at all to open the scoring; full back Lewis Hatty charging through a gap before touching down under the posts. Rhys Larmour found no difficulty in adding the conversion.
Five minutes later, Hatty was through again following a nice exchange of passes with Harry Angus down the left channel.
No matter how hard they tried, Belfast Met just couldn't hold on to the ball. Quite frankly the Belfast side were out of their depth throughout but dug deep to keep the young grammar side on their toes.
Shortly after, a rare Bangor error (holding on in the ruck) gifted Met a kick to the corner. From the following lineout, the visitors successfully passed the ball from one side to the other, and their fullback stretched over Bangor bodies to claim their only points of the match.
Inside centre Conor Lusty was Bangor's only scorer last week, and he continued his fine vein of form with another two tries this week. The first was again set up by Harry Angus, as a timely offload cleared the defence for Lusty to run the final 20 metres unchallenged. His second try, a little later in the match, was pretty similar except it was Rhys Larmour instead who provided from a fine darting run.
Between Lusty's scores were tries from second row Patrick Dobie and winger Michael McCreary; both players chalking up their first points in a BGS 1st XV jersey. Their tries were both further examples of Belfast Met failing to close gaps and mark Bangor players at the edge of the pitch.
Rhys Larmour's kicking was on point throughout, hitting the target with all of his first four conversion attempts.
The match was played in three 20 minute periods, and by the halfway point Bangor's coaches had started to think about introducing some faces from the 2nd XV. As the replacements came on, Bangor's momentum slowed slightly but they still controlled every aspect of the game. Belfast Met had flashes of opportunities, but were all quickly and easily snuffed out by the hosts.
Next to cross the whitewash was Bangor's Adam Pritchard, powering his way through three Met players en route. Over the past 12 months, Pritchard has proved to be an engine in the Bangor scrum. Remarkably this was also his first try for the 1st XV.
The most controversial moment of the match came as Will Simpson launched an attack down the Bangor wing. The Belfast Met #4 did well to catch him, but the tackle was dangerously high. Fortunately Simpson was able to continue unharmed, whilst the perpetrator was ordered off the pitch. A quirk of Schools' Rugby meant that Belfast Met could continue with a full compliment of players.
Two more debut tries for Bangor followed for Luke Norman and Ross Campbell, both making the most of the ever increasing gaps in the opposing back line, and both converted by Harry McCracken.
The final whistle signaled the end of Belfast Metropolitan College's suffering. This was a ruthless performance and a nice morale booster for Bangor Grammar School's 1st XV, but much more significant tests lie ahead, not least Ballymena Academy next Saturday.
Final Score: Bangor Grammar School 59-5 Belfast Metropolitan College
Teamsheet: 1. Skelly, 2. Moore, 3. Cavan, 4. Bull, 5. Dobie, 6. Winters, 7. Murray, 8. Pritchard, 9. Hamilton, 10. Larmour, 11. Angus, 12. Lusty, 13. Stewart, 14. Simpson, 15. Hatty.
Substitutes: 16. McNeice, 17. Pyper, 18. Norman, 19. Ritchie, 20. Kerr, 21. Campbell, 22. McCracken, 23. Webb, 24. McCreary
BGS Tries: Lewis Hatty (x2), Conor Lusty (x2), Patrick Dobie, Michael McCreary, Adam Pritchard, Luke Norman, Ross Campbell.
BGS Conv: Rhys Larmour (x5), Harry McCracken (x2)
BMC Tries: x1
BGS Gryphiti Man of the Match: Conor Lusty
