Down High’s defence holds in Medallion

Down High’s defence holds in Medallion

4 February 2015

DOWN High and Wallace meet again in Lisburn tomorrow afternoon after Saturday’s Medallion Shield fourth round tie ended in stalemate.

The Downpatrick school withstood a second half onslaught by the visitors and they can be proud that they lived to fight another day.

They went into the game full of confidence after pleasing wins against Coleraine Inst and Belfast Inst in the previous two weeks. 

The two sides had met earlier in the season when Down High came out on top. However, the boys in green knew they would have to be at their best to repeat this feat.

Conditions in Downpatrick were dry, but a bitterly cold wind was uncharacteristically blowing away from the pavilion towards the Cathedral and would undoubtedly impact on how both teams would approach this game. 

Down High played the first half with the wind on their backs and in the opening encounters appeared to be suffering from a few nerves as they made a number of unforced errors.

Wallace, on the other hand, appeared a little more settled and were first to score when they crossed for an unconverted try after five minutes of play. 

Down High will have been disappointed with their defending and it served as a wake-up call because in the minutes that followed they looked much more comfortable in attack and hungry in defence. 

Half backs Lewis Finlay and Robin Wilson began to make smarter use of the wind, while forwards Callum Dunn and Ben Keown made a numbering of thundering tackles on their opponents. 

Rhys Patterson looked like he had found a hole in the visiting defence off a set piece move, but he was just grabbed by a reaching Wallace arm and a promising attack was snuffed out. 

Around the 15-minute mark Down High’s pressure saw them draw level when they secured a line-out deep in Wallace territory before stringing a few phases of play together that eventually saw Wilson make a break up the blind side and offload to Ben Keown who crossed for the try. The difficult conversion drifted wide of the the uprights.  

For the remainder of the half both sides traded possession and showed plenty of attacking intent, but neither were able to add to their tally.

In the second half Wallace made it clear that they intended to make full use of the wind to pin Down High back into their half. Despite this, some fantastic breaks from centres Harris McConnell and Ronan Patterson amongst others saw Down High make good in roads into Wallace territory. 

Indeed, ten minutes into the half Wallace infringed at a breakdown by going off their feet and Robin Wilson opted to kick for goal from the resulting penalty. However, his kick drifted left of the posts leaving the game all level. 

For the remaining 20 minutes of the game Down High spent most of the time deep in their own half, but were heroic in defence as time after time they kept Wallace, who threw everything at the home side, away from the try line. 

Equally impressive was the home side’s discipline as they only conceded one kickable penalty, which drifted wide for the Wallace out half in very a similar fashion to Wilson’s earlier effort. 

Throughout this period the home team also scrummaged superbly with front row men Martin Rodgers, Chris Scurfield and Aaron Haslett proving their worth as they provided a solid platform for Down High to clear their lines on a number of key occasions.

Second row Andrew McNeilly also tortured the Wallace line out and at a few key moments prevented the Lisburn men from gaining possession.

When the final whistle went Down High had mixed emotions. Disappointment with the way in which they started the game, but equally pride, coupled with some relief given how they had held firm under tremendous pressure in the second half.

Down High School 5

Wallace High School 5

MEDALLION SHIELD 4TH ROUND