Friday 3rd April - 3rd Grade  v Wests

This game was scheduled to be played on Ballymore number 1, but due to the heavy rains during the week all pitches at Ballymore were declared unplayable and the match will be re-scheduled for later in the season

Saturday 4th April 

1.30pm - Reserve Grade v Gatton Black Pigs

What a game! From the moment of kick off the forwards came out firing and simply blew the Gatton pack away in every aspect of the game. Driving past the ball in breakdowns to provide fast clean ball, driving them off the ball to win their feed at scrums and turning their scrum to win the feed and stealing ball at the lineouts.

Gatton simply did not know what hit them. Despite all this after 15 minutes camped in their 22 we were still scoreless. When you consider how little preparation this side has had as a team this is understandable with people just trying to do a little too much themselves and not giving those final passes

After the first try was scored though the flood gates started to open and by half time we had opened up a convincing lead. With the extreme heat during the game the second half was always going to be played at a slower pace - 2 drinks breaks had been required in the first half

The message that went out at half time was to work on communication from players in space and for ball carriers to have confidence in these calls and move the ball

This showed immediate results with a try scored out wide after being handled by a combination of forwards and backs.

The final score was 45 - 0 and to be honest I think there were another 8 tires which went begging, the majority due to the final pass not going to hand

All in all it was a very satisfying performance and special mention must go to all the forwards who showed very clearly that there are going to be some tough selection decisions to be made when the teams are being selected for our next matches in 2 weeks time

In particular I would like to give praise to Tim Jones who played 2/3rds of this match before going on to play the entire A Grade game

Well done boys!!

3.00pm - A Grade v Gatton Black Pigs

With spirits high after the victory in Reserve Grade, A Grade took to the pitch. Gatton though, were out to avenge the earlier defeat and in the breakdown they started to do to use what had been done to them in the earlier game and they proceeded to drive past the ball in every ruck and our forwards were found wanting

Despite this the Irish defended courageously and it was not all one way traffic as Gatton opened up a 12 - 7 lead by half time with Ryan Mackenzie converting his own try for the Irish

The half time talk was all about the forwards standing up to be counted but by now injuries had started to play a role and reserve graders were starting to plug the holes

Irish fought their way down to within yards of teh Gatton line and a good ruck provided clean ball for David Land in space at 10. With the option of drop goal open to him he glanced wide to see winger Andy Smith in space wide and put a perfect cross kick in his direction. With their winger out of position and not interested in contesting in the air, Andy jumped well but unfortuately was only able to get one hand to the ball was not able to control it for what would have been a certain try. It was a snap decision that was well worth trying but the try was not to be

With 12 minutes remaining and with almost half the run on side having left the pitch with injuries - 3 backs and 5 forwards, only Tim Jones, James Buckley and Richard Donovan remaining from the run on pack, Gatton were awarded a scrum to the left of the posts and they were able to run in a try under the posts to make it 19-7

For the Irish the game was by no means over and with the injection of Reserve Graders into the forwards they started to do to Gatton A Grade what they had done to the Reserve Grade pack. The last 10 minutes were all Irish with a great supply of fast clean ball being generated form the breakdown and while the Gatton line was pounded almost continuously their stout defence held out

Final score 19-7 in favour of Gatton