A reasonably sized crowd, including the well known local faces of BBC’s Mark Carruthers and Ulster’s Patrick Jackson, turned out in blustery conditions at Pirrie Park for the first meeting of Belfast’s fiercest two rivals and it was the home team who walked away much the happier despite some first-half scares.

Early penalties from Inst at the breakdown gave early opportunities for Methody to take the lead through their kicker, Rudolph Benade. The first clipped the left upright, but RBAI were alert to the danger and cleared their lines easily; the second, perhaps a more difficult placement, was successful and so MCB lead 3-0 after 5 minutes.

Inst got into the flow of their passing game from the restart and mounted sustained pressure at the 10m line. At one point it seemed like the Methody defence would hold strong, but after an excellent line-out and subsequent rolling maul, Belfast Inst’s no.2, Carruthers, broke from the pack to cross the line and score the first try of the game after 18 minutes. The conversion was missed, but Inst celebrated their 5 points and a deserved lead.

Methody obviously wanted to win the hard way as they started to give away a number of penalties. The resultant yellow cards which appeared for not one, but two players in blue, were probably a bit harsh but they were certainly MCB’s own doing. However, this may have been the catalyst for the home side to find their ‘A-game’ as they held strong against a number of attacks and even managed to find the try-line before half-time. This time the conversion was good and the whistle sounded to end the first half.

HT: Methody 10-5 RBAI

Methody’s last-gasp act of the first-half seemed to knock RBAI off their rhythm in the second as Inst were unable to add to their tally despite a number of phases of pressure. In fact it was sustained attack that led to MCB’s second try of the game, James Harrison finally forcing the ball over the line, with a case of déja vu for Benade as his kick struck the post again!

With 20 minutes to go, Methody now led 15-5 and if the game wasn’t beyond RBAI at that point it was soon after, as Harrison scored again, breaking off from the maul to cross the line, a move closely resembling Inst’s try from the first half. This conversion was missed as well, but it was enough to put the game firmly in the home side’s grasp.

The final move of the game was the proverbial icing for MCB as, in the best move of the whole match, Paddy Colhoun danced his way through the Inst back-line to score Methody’s fourth try right between the posts. Benade added the easy conversion and the no-side whistle sounded to leave the score reading 27-5 in MCB’s favour.

Methody will be very pleased with this performance against such a large rival, but many things need to be fine-tuned before competition time otherwise they may come undone in a manner similar to last year; RBAI need to learn how to make advantages count and not to drop their heads when things aren’t working – many chances went begging for them in this match which could have significantly affected the outcome.

FT: Methody 27-5 RBAI

Methodist College: M.Lagan, O.McGoldrick, J.Harrison, D.Bingham, M.Campbell, R.Winters (c), D.Rea, C.Gracey, D.McElhinney, R.Edgar, P.Colhoun, C.McKee, M.Gribben, J.Gallagher, R.Benade

RBAI: P.Vincent, J.Carruthers, D.Clegg, A.Roulston, D.Lyness, B.Alexander, J.Atkinson, P.Anderson, M.Keane, G.Lawlor, R.Campell, R.Bell, N.Brown, M.Taylor, J.Martin

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