Malone bounce back with an 8 try victory over a very game Greystones side

Report compiled by George Millar

ULSTER BANK ALL IRELAND DIV 2A: Malone 55 Greystones 14

How would this Malone team respond after suffering defeats against City of Armagh and Queens Uni in the Senior Cup and UBL in consecutive weeks. Three seasons of hard work led by Head coach Paddy Armstrong and his team provided the answers at Dr Hickey Park in Greystones. Yes the margin looks convincing but once again the defensive qualities of this Red Sox team had to be at their best in both halves when Greystones had their purple patch. Eight tries to two is an illustration of the level this squad has progressed to this season. What we now have in Div 2A is six teams battling it out to finish in the top four led by Malone, Highfield, Nenagh Ormond, Queens Uni, City of Armagh and Cashel with 12 points separating them. Three from Ulster and three from Munster.
Strength in depth has been crucial in the development of the 1st and 2nd xv squad at Gibson Park over the last two seasons. Injury ruled out influential centre Nathan Brown with Jack Owens moving to centre and Andy Bryans coming in at full back. Family commitments ruled out prop Phil Eadie with Lee Barlow taking his place on the bench. Both Phil Lucas and Dave Cave continue their recovery from injury.
Conditions were perfect at the County Wicklow venue for open running rugby on a crisp autumnal day. The game was only 2 mins old when Rory ‘Soupy’ Campbell put Malone ahead with a penalty. This was followed shortly afterwards by Captain Ross Todd making the vital break through to score the teams first try with Campbell adding the points to give his side an early 10 – 0 lead. Any thoughts this was going to be another comfortable win were quickly dispelled as Greystones hit back with a try through winger Jack Keatings converted by out half Andrew Kealy to reduce the Malone lead to 10 – 7. Young winger David McMaster has impressed since his move across to Malone when he charged down the wing to touch down in the corner to increase his teams lead to 15 – 7 after 20 mins. The second quarter was even with both teams playing expansive rugby as the Malone side denied the home team any space. Just coming up to half time Malone wasted a good opportunity to increase their lead to leave the halftime score 15 – 7 in favour of the Belfast visitors.
During the opening minutes of the second half Malone pushed on with full back Andy Bryans joining the line to score his teams third try converted by Campbell to increase their lead to 22 – 7. Now it was all about the bonus point. Instead it was the Greystones team who put the visitors under a period of sustained pressure with the Malone defence having to dig deep to defend their line. Unfortunately Ulster Academy prospect Joe Dunleavy had to leave the pitch with a reoccurrence of a shoulder injury. He was replaced by Josh Davidson who moved into the second row with Michael Shiels dropping into the back row.
The referee decided that Malone had infringed once too often with second row Matthew Dalton spending 10 mins in the sin bin. With a one man advantage you would have expected Greystones to take control, instead it was the Malone team who capitalised with winger Davy McMaster charging down the wing for his second try with Campbell adding the points to secure the bonus point for the Gibson Park side. This score seemed to open the flood gates as Malone ran in a further four tries in a devastating 10 min spell. First up out half Callum Smith showed his pace to take a pass from Michael Cartmill to score with Campbell unable to add the points. Next was the turn of Michael Cartmill who evaded several tacklers to touch down with Campbell increasing the Malone lead to 41 – 7. Further tries came with centre Jack Owens being rewarded for a strong performance by scoring the teams 7th try after good work by his centre partner Cartmill followed by back row Michael Shiels touching down for the final try after out half Callum Smith made the break. Campbell added both conversions to increase the Malone score to 55 – 7. Greystones did not give up and were rewarded for their efforts with prop Bobby Clancy appearing from a maul to touch down with Kealy converting to leave the final score 55 – 14 in favour of Malone. With Highfield, Nenagh Ormond and City of Armagh defeating Queens Uni there are only seven points separating the top four teams. Next up for Malone are two tricky back to back games against Galway Corinthians before the Xmas break.

As Raymond Thomas described to me this was a team performance with all 20 players involved. Connor Spence came on to replace Shane Kelly. Scott Finlay to replace Dan Kerr. The sight of Lee Barlow coming into the front row to replace Ben Halliday for the final 20 minutes was not welcomed by the Greystones front row who had been under pressure through out the game from a dominant Malone pack. Josh Pentland put in a 10 minute cameo role as the team added tries in the final few minutes. Captain Ross Todd put in another inspirational performance as his leadership qualities shone through. Callum Smith showed the immense talent he has on his return from injury with many questioning how did Ulster rugby let go such a talented player from their Sub Academy. Another Academy player who has impressed everybody at Malone has been the form of prop Peter Cooper. His set piece play and particularly his ball carrying in the open has been a great asset to this Malone pack this season along with former Ulster under 20 prop Ben Halliday.

The players on the 1st xv team know their performance levels cant drop with the performances of several players on the 2nd xv as they challenge for 1st xv starting places. It is a healthy environment Paddy Armstrong and his coaching team have created at Malone. One fact that may have gone unnoticed is the influence of the Sullivan Upper Schools Cup final team of 2014 in this Malone squad. They include Ross Todd (captain) Peter Cooper, Scott Finlay, Josh Davidson, Dave Cave, Michael Cartmill, Ryan Spence, David McMaster, Chris Griffiths and Callum Jeffrey.

Malone rugby club would like to send their congratulations to Mathew Dalton who made his debut off the bench for Ulster in the final 10 minutes of their 23 – 22 win over Treviso at the Kingspan stadium on Friday night. Well done Matthew.

Malone team: 1. Ben Halliday, 2. Danny Kerr, 3. Peter Cooper, 4. Matthew Dalton,5. Michael Shiels, 6. Joe Dunleavy, 7. Ross Todd (captain), 8. Ryan Clarke, 9. Shane Kelly, 10. Callum Smith, 11. Rory Campbell, 12. Michael Cartmill, 13. Jack Owens, 14. David McMaster, 15. Andy Bryans. 16. Scott Finlay, 17. Lee Barlow, 18. Josh Davidson, 19. Connor Spence, 20. Josh Pentland.