The sun was bright the grass was green and flat, the opposition should have been formidable dressed in all black and with a club history of providing great players to Ulster and Ireland. The white shirts ran up the pitch bouncing the opposition off them, the World Cup had started. But it wasn’t 6 in the morning and this wasn’t Fiji. It was 11.15 and Malone were visiting Ballymena, U18’s were a team that did not know until the night before if they had their numbers. Ryan brought along Theo, Darragh and Stewart the team was complete. Mark dragged himself from his death bed even though the night before there was only one result in his future. Lewis gave us a another good display of tackling and running with ball in-hand. Matty again showed us his adaptability playing hooker, prop and in the line out as a flanker. No change in Eion, with ball in hand he was like a homing missile on any opposition player, knocking them over until such time as culture night caught up, allowing Matty to sow his versatility. Patrick put ‘Javier Sotomayor’ to shame with his jumping in the line out. Ryan apart from saving the day with numbers he also had some great runs with ball in hand. Calum discarded his Walking frame following the mummification of his ankle and put in a note worthy display including a try under the posts. Sam by far the youngest player on the team played the game like the gentleman he is, at no time did he embarrass the oldest and biggest of the opposition by telling him his age after unceremoniously tackling them and making them lose ground before putting them on their ass. Another quick pickup of a loose ball allowed him to score under the posts with a swarm of black behind him. Nathan gave us a display of passing and ferrite like darting runs through the opposition and he has a lethal box kick more on that later. Conor out of his normal position controlled the game well and display good out of hand kicking and kicking off the tee. Theo are visitor gave us a display of his silky skills with running, passing and tackling. Dillon with his snake hips darted through and avoided many an initial tackle. Fergus gave a fine display of speed and covering chase kicks, until a high tackle forced him from the game. Colman gave us a display scoring three try’s all of which had the flare of a curtain nation, don’t know where he got that from. Following Eion being side lined by culture night Mark lifted himself from his dark and negative mood to take up a position on the wing. Nathan executed a perfect box kick which a Ballymena player was foolish enough to catch, a curtain Jason Dowds entombed this young man forcing the ball out allowing Mark to not touch it with his hands but kick it on and score a try. Do not be fooled by these displays each and everyone was heroic in a hard match that saw some stunning tackles and try saving tackles by Darragh another visitor playing at fullback. I’m sure you can see everyone even Aaron and Stewart the water boys who sent the manager to refill half the water bottles during the game deserve a mention. How ever there can only be one man of the match ‘Jason Downs’. If CJ Stander puts in a display close to that of Dowdsy, which was similar to the destruction caused by the Tasmanian Devil in the cartoons Ireland will definitely win the World Cup. Congratulations on man of the match.

Unfortunately Sam lifted his dad’s shirt this morning it had a rose on it.

Don’t expect this every week apparently I should talk to the wife and not dictate to her, especially on our anniversary dinner.

Not only was Mark having a bad Friday, there is the minibus but that is still to traumatic to talk about.

League match next Saturday at home to OPHIR hope to see you all there.

PS anyone know how to switch on Wi-fi on their phone to keep those unable to attend updated.

Sent from my iPhone

Malone - The Cregagh Red Sox

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