A ‘Great Escape’ is needed from the Accies

OMAGH Accies have four games remaining if they are to perform a ‘Great Escape’ and avoid relegation from All-Ireland League 2C and back into the junior ranks of Ulster Rugby. Saturday’s 31-12 defeat at Ballyclare was their 11th in 14 games, during which time they have won only one – their opening fixture of the season at home to Clonmel – and drawn two, which leaves them bottom of the table, two points behind Tullamore and nine adrift of safety.

They have shown some positive signs throughout the season and they did so again on Saturday when tries from Joe Duff and Richard Hemphill, one of which was converted by Scott Elliott brought them back from 14-0 down to 14-12.

Unfortunately at that stage the issues that have blighted their entire campaign came back to haunt them once more as a lack of clinical edge and individual errors proved costly.

“It was a tough one. We probably just weren’t clinical enough at times. We created a lot of chances and if we just could have converted them it might have been a different game,” Accies captain Matthew Clyde observed.

“It just slipped away from us and [Ballyclare scored] a couple of tries late on that leaves it with a scoreline that doesn’t really reflect the performance.

“We came back into it well, getting it back to 14-12 but then we didn’t take our chances and they went up the other end and took theirs and then they punished a couple of errors after that. It’s a frustrating one not to get anything from.

“Nothing’s changed, we’re in the same boat all the time. I can’t fault the effort, the guys are working hard and even today things worked quite well, there was some nice rugby at times but it’s just that final pass, a wee knock-on close to the line, wee things like that, we’re just not converting them at the minute. If we could, then all of a sudden, you’d see different results. It’s fine margins.”

Omagh they entertain Belfast Harlequins on March 1.

They then travel to Monkstown on March 22, host Dolphin on March 29 and conclude their season at Clonmel on April 5.