The boys worked incredibly hard this year. Their rugby skills and fitness improved dramatically over the year. The highlight of the season was convincingly beating Portora Royal in the second round of the Medallion Shield away from home. Unfortunately, the team came up against a very strong Ballyclare side in the next round and they narrowly beat PC. The College then entered the Medallion Plate and in the quarter-final lost to a well-drilled Ballymena Academy side. They had led the match 5-0 at half-time but eventually lost to a side who were physically much bigger. However, the team certainly deserve credit for getting this far in the tournament. The quarter-final match against Ballymena Academy. Some Match Reports... The following reports were written by Ryan Calvert, Vice Captain of the Medallion team, for the Portadown Times . Saturday 12th December 2009 - Portadown College Medallion XV v Omagh Academy Medallion XV Fine Win for College in the Morning Sun In the first five minutes of the match Portadown College defensively dominated and pushed Omagh back into their own 22. With Omagh making mistakes, Portadown soon capitalised with great attacking opportunities off the top of the lineout and out wide, resulting in a try from Chris Phun. The ball was caught off a clearance kick and moved to the opposite wing for Chris to score. It wasn’t long before Portadown scored again. With quick ball from the ruck, it was moved wide for the College to put more points on the board in the corner through Toby Clarke. The last ten minutes of the first half were scrappy and were turned into a forward battle because of Omagh. They kept driving round the sides of rucks but Omagh only managed to break the line once. A great covering tackle by Sam Matthews held them out. At half-time Portadown College led 10-0. The second half started like the first half with Portadown putting pressure on Omagh’s line but with handling errors stopping the College from going over for more tries. The pressure kept building on their line and finally the handling errors disappeared. A scrum on Omagh’s 22 set up a good base for Portadown’s backline to use their calls. Toby Clarke ran a great line but was caught five metres short. With good support from Nathan Brown, Toby offloaded the ball and Nathan walked over for a try and the conversion was added by Ryan Calvert. Immediately afterwards, Omagh went back to driving round the sides of rucks. Omagh did a cross field kick but a mental lapse in Portadown’s defensive positioning led to Omagh’s inside centre collecting it to score their only points of the match. Portadown got back into their 22 and never left it for the rest of the match. The College lacked execution and made a lot of handling errors but still Toby Clarke managed to get another try under the posts. Ryan Calvert added another conversion but the conclusion of the match was disappointingly scrappy. The final score was 24-5. Try scores: Chris Phun Toby Clarke 2 Nathan Brown Conversions: Ryan Calvert 2 Second Round of the Medallion Shield - Portora Royal School v Portadown College The match started negatively for Portadown College being pinned back in their own twenty-two. Portadown were struggling to get out with a few kicks not finding touch. Portora kept running the ball back but never looked like scoring with a strong College defence, especially through Nathan Brown and Toby Clarke, making crunching tackles in the centre. Portora started giving away a few penalties which Portadown made use of kicking down the touch line. Great line-out ball cleanly off the top from Ross Purvis give the backs excellent quick ball. Moving it wide, Toby Clarke took advantage of it and broke up to their twenty-two. Good support from the College’s forwards helped Portadown smash their way up to the try line. Jordan Elliot picked from the base of the ruck and crashed over the line but the referee disallowed the try for no apparent reason. The first half was played in the middle of the pitch with no team being able to get quick ball from poor rucking technique and the referee doing nothing for the College’s chances of winning. The first half ended scoreless. The second half started a little more promisingly for the College but some ridiculous decisions gave Portora a few attacking opportunities. However, Portadown’s defensive was still solid with a great covering tackle by Craig Johnston. Portadown then began to ruck harder and with better angles which then produced quick ball for Ben Matchett to release the backs who broke the gain line nearly every time. Portadown then had a great attacking chance with a scrum in the middle of Portora’s twenty-two. Portadown’s front row had been scrummaging well all day and again they were solid. This gave the backs an excellent try-scoring chance and Nathan Brown brushed aside four Portora defenders to crash over for the first of the scores. The conversion was missed. With thirteen minutes left, Portadown began to press on due to all their fitness work. The referee was still making horrendous decisions but Portadown had belief they could still score more tries which they did with good dribbling skills. Ryan Calvert broke through and was just short but the ruck left clean ball and Ben Matchett popped it up for Toby Clarke to smash his way over the line. The conversion was added. The score was 12-0 to Portadown with three minutes left and Portadown was not finished yet. Adam Currie and Nicky McClelland and been collecting the ball well from the restart all day. Again they did and drove on back to the half way line. Then Ryan Calvert kicked to the corner and, from a good chase, Sam Matthews drove Portora’s winger out in to touch. This gave Portadown a good base in Portora’s twenty-two. The lineout had been functioning superbly and with another spot-on throw by Matthew Goodland hitting his target it was cleaner ball for Portadown. Adam Currie made a great surge through the middle of the park giving Portadown front foot ball which gave Nathan Brown open space to run at his opposite number. He broke through the tackle and was just short but great support from Craig Johnston finished off the break. The conversion was missed. The final score was 17-0 to Portadown College Try scores : Nathan Brown Conversions: Ryan Calvert Toby Clarke Craig Johnston Portadown College were delighted to get a win after a long journey down and hopefully a successful tournament. Portadown College Medallion team and coaching staff would like to say thank you to the supporters who travelled down to Portora.
Medallion Awards 2009-2010 Players' Player of the Year - Ben Matchett Player of the Year - Ryan Calvert Most Improved Player of the Year - Ross Purvis Top Try Scorer - Ryan Calvert Medallion team and coaches relaxing at the BBQ after paintballing. |