Malone just come up short against Ulster U20's

Malone hosted the Ulster U20 side at Gibson Park in the 2nd of their 3 pre season fixtures. The game was played in perfect conditions, bright, sunny and no wind to speak off.

It was the U20s who made the better start and they took the game to Malone, who were forced to show good defence to keep their line intact.

Malone were tested in the scrums and on occasions were up against it, they were penalised on a number of time for not binding.

The U20.s had a number of scoring opportunities in the opening half but the Malone defence held them out. The only score of the opening half came from Malone when Shane Kelly took a quick tap penalty he passed inside to Johnny Creighton who kicked a superbly weighted ball to Taylor Acheson, who caught it and passed inside to Full back Peter Henderson who returned the ball to Creighton who burst through at pace to run in to score a superbly worked try.

This gave Malone a halftime lead of 7-0 despite Ulster having a greater hold on the half.

The second half saw Ulster reply early doors when their first attacking play saw the Ulster full back set down under the posts to make for a simple conversion to level the scores at 7-7.

Both sides continued to play open and attacking rugby but to often Malone lost the ball at crucial times during attacks, and also players in attacking situations found themselves isolated and got turned over. On a positive note Lee Barlow made a massive difference in the scrums but sadly he was lost to injury later in the half.

Ulsters next score came when during a Malone attack the ball was lost and Ulster took full advantage to score. 7-14.

Ulster were rewarded with 2 further scores to give them a 7-26, lead. Malone to their credit stuck to their task and were rewarded with a try late into the half when second row Corry Tipping made a superb break and set down under the posts for Taylor Acheson to convert.

Another good workout for the boy and plenty of things to work on for next week, Discipline, to many penalties given away and work to be done at the set piece.

Next week is our final pre season game at home against Ballymena.