Dalriada Medallion book Bowl final slot with win

Dalriada Medallion played Regent House in the Semi-final of the Medallion Bowl and continued the School's current vein of success on the pitch.
By The Newsroom
Published 19th Feb 2016, 07:00 BST

The Ballymoney boys came through this encounter scoring two tries and three successfully kicks to win 17-0 to book their place in the final against Bangor Grammar to be played on Saturday 26th February in Belfast.

Dalriada opted to kick off and from the whistle they brought an intensity that Regent struggled to deal with.

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After a well-executed lineout where Barry Armstrong found Jack Murdoch, the Ballymoney team launched their back line fly half Paddy Carson slicing through the opposition defence before moving the ball onto Peter Wright to finish off a brilliant try.

Dalriada looked to move the ball at every opportunity which stretched the Regent House defence this led them into the Regent 22m where after a number of forward drives through Adam Wright, Chris Wright, and David Dysart, James Allen moved the ball to Carson who put Peter Wright in for his second try of the game. With minutes to go Dalriada continued the bombardment of the regent try line but just lacked that final pass. 

The second half saw Dalriada spending much time in their own half with crunching tackles coming from Luke Clements, Thomas Hunter and Will Scott to ensure the North Down side did not cross the try line easily.

On numerous occasions Jack Murdock and Josh Watson forced turnovers through forceful counter rucking. Dalriada eventually got on the attack again through a great back three counter attack from Jacob Fleck and Matthew Carton who made over 50 metres before going through several phases and just dropping the ball over the Regent try line.

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James McCormick eventually got the scoreboard ticking again with a huge penalty from the ten metre line. With 20 minutes to go Dalriada utilised their strong bench to help close out the game with Conor Clarke and Nathan Philipson both making good carries to keep Regent on the back foot.

The referee eventually blew for full time and to great jubilation the game finished with Dalriada booking their place in the final with opponents ironically Bangor GS whom the First XV play at home on the previous Saturday in the Quarter final of the Schools’ Cup.