Nerve-jangling victory for new RSD coach

NEW Royal School Dungannon PE teacher and head of rugby, David Riddles endured a nerve-jangling but winning start to his tenure on Saturday as the first XV earned a bonus point 17-24 victory in their opening Danske Bank Schools Cup clash at Dalriada.

The Donemana man watched with delight as his new charges surged into a 17-7 lead at the break before they extended their advantage to 24-7 after the restart, thanks to scores from Adam Nixon (2), Blake Redmond and James Gibson, who added two conversions.

But any hopes he had of sitting back and putting his feet up soon disappeared as the home side roared back into the clash and hand it not been for a knock-on over the line in the final seconds of the game, the outcome could have been much different.

“We won but it was a bit of a nail-biter towards the end!,” he admitted. “We didn’t play enough territory [at 24-7] and we were giving away too many penalties and they were getting their heads back into it – it was ours to lose at that stage.

“And the game finished with a knock-on over the try line by Dalriada to potentially tie us – my heart’s still going!

“But it’s a good result for the boys and I’m really happy with how they performed, especially in the first half. I’m happy with how they played and the grit they showed but we need to reduce the penalty count and to play better finishing rugby.”

Riddles only took up his post on October 1st, but because of Storm Amy’s intervention last week, this was his first game in charge and while he’s still getting to know his player’s names, he was delighted with how they performed against a higher ranked team, who won the corresponding fixture 33-5 12 months earlier.

“I have had 10 days in school essentially to make something of the boys that I’ve met and to be honest, I still don’t know everyone’s name in that first XV, but trying to give them the tools and the skills to go out and win matches like that and they provided that, which is really, really good from that perspective.

“I’m delighted because all five teams from under-13, 14, Medallion, seconds and firsts all won [on Saturday], so it was a good day for us and for me, I’m really happy with the school as a whole’s performance and how it turned out.

“And Dalriada are technically a tier two team and were tier three, so coming away with a win today is a real marker for us.

“It’s always nice winning away from home to start but to win against a team a tier above you away from home is extra sweet in this case.”

Dungannon entertain Bangor Academy this coming Saturday in their second Schools’ Cup group match and Riddles is confident his side can make it two wins on the bounce.

“Bangor Academy beat Grosvenor to make it to the group stage and because they had to play to get into the group stages you’d fairly back us going forward,” he observed.

“We already played Grosvenor this season under Ali Ferguson [his predecessor] and beat them 26-10, while Bangor beat Grosvenor 13-10, so you’d back us going into that fixture.

“We need 70 minutes of concentration, though, in order to achieve that.”