Lisburn Under 18’s produce great display in Youth Cup

However, the Smiley Monroe 1st XV were a bit unlucky in their final league game of the season against Enniskillen, going down by the narrow margin of 10-14 but at least gaining another bonus point.

The 1st XV must now wait on the outcome of the matches still to be played by their rivals Holywood and UUC who each have three matches still to play.

Lisburn Under 18s put up a great display in the first round of the Under 18 Youth Cup in defeating rivals Civil Service 24-7.

Played in excellent conditions under a warm sun, they soaked up the early pressure thrown at them by the visitors and on 15 minutes a great driving scrum going forward allowed Number 8, Kyle Evans, to pick up the ball and scorch around the opposition to score.

The conversion made it 7-0. On the 20 minute mark young flanker Gareth Millen, son of Coach, Kenny Millen, got possession out wide and neatly stepped inside the defence to make it 12-0.

While Civil Service were responding to these scores with occasional periods of pressure on the Lisburn line, the home defence was standing firm, a testament to the regular training and coaching which the team put in on the park each week.

After thirty minutes, Lisburn went further ahead after big prop Chris Stewart put his head down and charged through the Service defence following a ten metre lineout and five minutes later Adam Reaney showed his twinkle toed skills when he side stepped through the Civil Service backline to run in under the posts.

The conversion made it 24-0 and it remained at this until the half time whistle.

The second half started well for Civil Service as Lisburn seemed to take their foot off the pedal for long periods.

Service started to spurn kickable penalties as they tried to claw their way back into the game and following some good rucking they were rewarded with a fine try under the Lisburn posts. 24-7.

The Lisburn second row Chris Magill tried hard to motivate his pack with some good foraging play and Stephen Mills at fullback had a few good runs with ball in hand, however, the remainder of the game remained scoreless and the Under 18s ran out worthy winner by 24 points to 7. Next Saturday they play Malone Under 18s in the next round of the Cup and that will be a much tougher proposition requiring maximum effort.