It was a beautiful Saturday morning where the Ophir u16s took the field to play their first league game vs Instonians at Shaws Bridge. Unfortunately, the Instonians team were unable to field a full 15 so a few Ophir men had to go over to the Instonians side, non the less it took nothing away from the competitive nature of the match, with both sides looking to play great rugby.

From the outset the Ophir side strung together good phases with great lines cut by Cormac and Sam, complimented by physical carries by Jaymie, Raymond and Nathan. Eventually the Ophir men got to the Instonians try line, with Eoin slipping a number of tackles to score Ophir’s first try of the match. Instonians immediately replied, exploiting poor tackling on the fringes of the defense and darted down under the posts and tied the match.

It was the Ophir men again off the kickoff with Eoin again bursting down the wing running around the Instonians winger to get Ophir to the halfway line, with some darting runs by scrum half Sean and lovely passing by the backs stressing the Instonians defense but it proved too much and eventually the Ophir men scored again, and again. The power of Chris and Oscar in the backs seemed too much for the Instonians players with barnstorming runs by the pair, this set the platform for the Ophir men to score some great tries scored in the first half. With the half ending 38 – 5 to Ophir.

The second half saw the affair become much more contested with Ophir men switching sides to go over to Instonians and the players who had played for them, returning. The first blow struck in the first half was done by non-other than prop forward Raymond. wearing an Instonians shirt, realising it was the golden promise land of 5 meters out for a prop, he took the ball and rampaged through 3 weak Ophir tackles, reminiscent of Tadhg Furlong, to get over the whitewash.

After this an Ophir player had to come off with a minor injury and for the rest of the half the Ophir men played with 1 man less. Despite this it did not detract from the enthralling encounter. Instantly the Ophir men showed their character with a fantastic effort by Niall to take on 4 men and still manage to march down and dot the ball down over the try line. The numerical disadvantage took its toll with some heavy breathing and tired legs from the Ophir men, yet the hits came on coming with some fantastic and physical tackling done by Jamie, Sean, Sam and Mark.

Exploiting their advantage, Instonians scored another 3 tries in this half including a beautifully read intercept try off a pass from an Ophir back.

A huge well done on their first Ophir starts for Jamie and Aaron who both did excellently.
The match ended 43 – 29 Ophir, a great match to watch and I'm sure a great match to play were each player played very well and did the Ophir shirt proud.

#UpTheOphs

RM