Down High marching on in Medallion

21 January 2015

DOWN High’s Medallion team welcomed Coleraine Inst to Downpatrick on Saturday for their Danske Bank Medallion Shield third round tie.

Both sides and the large home crowd found themselves battling the frosty temperatures and cold wind with kick off being pushed back 15 minutes to allow the pitch more time to thaw thoroughly.

Coleraine kicked off into the reasonably strong breeze. The opening encounters were scrappy with both sides clearly suffering from a few typical Shield game nerves.

Even so, Down High made good use of the wind on their backs and opened the scoring on the 12-minute mark when Robin Wilson struck over a relatively straight forward penalty after the Coleraine back line were a little over-eager in their defence and strayed off side.

Down High’s lead was extended 20 minutes into the game when Andrew McNeilly touched down on the back of a strong maul from the home team. Wilson added the extras to take the score to 10-0.

For the remainder of the half both teams showed plenty of attacking intent but ultimately both also defended very successfully, including a fantastic covering tackle from the visiting defence who stopped Michael Donaldson dead in his tracks after he had made a superb break off a well-crafted set-piece play.

In the second half, now playing into the wind, Down High had a tougher task in hand.

For the opening 15 minutes, despite some great breaks in attack from the likes of Alexander Martin, Jack Carlisle, Rhys Patterson and Harris McConnell, the Coleraine defence stood firm and the home side were unable to add to their lead.

In fact, in what may have turned out to be a pivotal moment of the game, Coleraine missed a penalty attempt after about 10 minutes. Had this kick went over the margin would have been very assailable.

As it turned out, the kick drifted wide and from this point Down High stamped their authority on the game, running in two more tries before the close of play.

The first came from Callum Dunn, who showed great support play to take a pass off Robin Wilson and dive over. Wilson’s break had come after a large number of attacking phases by the home side had stretched the visiting defence. Wilson went on to convert.

A few moments later, as the game was coming to a close and the visiting team beginning to tire, Harris McConnell cut a great line and showed great pace to run in for an impressive score from open play. Wilson missed the conversion.

The final whistle blew shortly afterwards, with Down High securing a place in the fourth round at home to Wallace High School on Saturday, January 31.

Down High School 29

Coleraine Inst 0

MEDALLION SHIELD

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