Lisburn crash to Omagh

AT Omagh last Saturday, Lisburn once again crashed in the Qualifying League and went down by four tries and three conversions to nil, albeit twelve of these points coming in the last few minutes of the match when Lisburn were down to 14 men. Playing on a gluey pitch still recovering from the overnight frost, they started well and while playing down the hill in the first half, enjoyed a territorial advantage as they chased an opening score.

However, they could not get that vital breakthrough running hard at the home line and it was Omagh who put the first points on the board when a Lisburn kick ahead was run back by the Omagh full back when the Lisburn chasers were not in evidence. His momentum took him through the visitor’s defence and a score under the posts resulted in a 7-0 deficit, much against the run of play up to that point.

Omagh played their usual strong mauling game to suit the conditions perfectly and Lisburn progressively had great difficulty in getting the ball down into the home 22 and half time arrived with the score still at 7-0.

The second half was going to be a hard task for Lisburn playing up the slope and that is exactly how it transpired, though there were occasions when they came near to scoring. After ten minutes of the half the big Omagh pack rumbled deep into Lisburn territory to score again and the conversion made it 14-0. Within minutes, Lisburn nearly equalised after scrumhalf Bobby Hall made an excellent break upfield and with just the fullback to beat under the home posts, looked around for support. Unfortunately, it arrived too late and the opportunity was lost in the following melee. Lisburn did manage to maintain a semblance of attacking fervour and spent some time in the Omagh half during the second period but most of their time was spent on defence. Twenty minutes from time they lost hooker Tommy Thompson with an injured shoulder and this eventually told as Omagh ran in two tries in the final five minutes to give themselves an added bonus point. This win for Omagh allows them to leapfrog Lisburn in the League table and leaves Lisburn second from the bottom and fighting for survival. Next Saturday they travel to Ballyclare to take on the League leaders and a hard fought game is in prospect. The Second XV, however, came away from Omagh with a good 17-14 win over their counterparts and the highlight of this game was the great delight to see hooker Michael Press back in a Lisburn jersey after four and a half years out with a serious leg injury. Welcome back Michael. Next Saturday the Seconds entertain a strong Ballyclare Seconds at Blaris.