The Bermuda National Men’s rugby team warmed up for their upcoming tour to Barbados and Trinidad by producing a very good display to see off top US club Boston Irish Wolfhounds’ Division 1 team at Malabar on Saturday. There were plenty of positives for coaches Lawrence Bird and Johann Oosthuizen to take from the match, while also highlighting areas that require work before they head off this Saturday September 19th. The game was used to try out a number of different combinations of players and the coaches will have been pleased with how the team didn’t seem to get unsettled from the numerous changes.
Boston opened the game strongly and spent much of the opening 30 minutes camped inside Bermuda’s half, as they sent wave after wave of attacks towards the Bermuda try line. The magnificent defense repelled each and every attack superbly and while Boston enjoyed the lion’s share of possession, they were unable to breach the try line. Eventually, they slotted a penalty after back chat to the ref was penalized. Bermuda began to get more possession with plenty of steals, and Dave Rourke thought he had scored only to be pulled back as a line-out was given. Boston went in at half-time leading 3-0.
Early in the second half, Boston scored the first try when they took advantage of some uncharacteristic weak tackles to burst through and score, although they were off target with the conversion. Bermuda responded brilliantly and after a fine passage of play, Boston infringed to give away a kickable penalty. Darragh O’Donoghue, who played the majority of the game with a broken nose, split the posts to get Bermuda off the mark. More dominant forward play saw Bermuda awarded another penalty inside the Boston half. The excellent Conor McGlynn showed great presence of mind to take a quick tap penalty and burst through the static defense. He was hauled down short of the line but managed to pop the ball to the supporting Tom Edwards who went over for a try. O’Donoghue converted to leave Bermuda ahead 10-8 at that stage. Further indiscipline gave Eoghan O’Dwyer the opportunity to further increase the lead, which he duly did with a super kick. Confidence was oozing through the Bermuda team at this point, and it was perhaps fitting that captain Peter Dunkerley was on the end of a scintillating piece of play to dive over on the corner, to seal an 18-8 victory for Bermuda.
The Bermuda squad, generously sponsored by Bank of Butterfield, flies out on Saturday morning to Barbados, where they will train before the first of their IRB sanctioned full test internationals against the host country at 7 p.m. local time on Tuesday evening. The following day they will fly on to Trinidad, where they will face the home side at 4 p.m. local time on Saturday afternoon (26th). This will be a mammoth test for the Bermuda side, against the top Caribbean side and a team ranked 13 places higher than them in the official world rankings. They will return on Sunday, September 27th to Bermuda.
Bermuda National Men’s Rugby Team
Brian Desmond (Teachers)
Billy McNiven (Teachers)
Iain Simpson (Police)
Paul Dobinson (Renegades)
Thomas Greenslade (Teachers)
Ryan Sommerville (Police)
David Rourke (Mariners)
Scott Brown (Mariners)
Andrew Hook (Teachers)
Conor McGlynn (Renegades)
Peter Dunkerley (Renegades)
Kris Furbert (Mariners)
Gary Brady (Mariners)
Mark Pomeroy (Mariners)
Tom Edwards (Police)
Chris Naylor (Teachers)
Steven Husbands (Mariners)
Darragh O’Donoghue (Renegades)
Seamus MacLoughlin (Teachers)
Jack Ellison (Teachers)
Eoghan O’Dwyer (Renegades)
David Porter (Teachers)
Neville Zuill (Police)
Lawrence Bird (Coach)
Johann Oosthuizen (Coach)
Alvin Harvey (Tour Manager)
Maureen Ryan (Physio)
|
