Omagh Accies boost survival hopes with bonus point victory

OMAGH Accies survival hopes received a massive boost on Saturday when they defeated Belfast Harlequins 27-21 at the Thomas Mellon Playing Fields.

The bonus point win has seen Omagh leapfrog Tullamore and off the bottom of the table, into the promotion/relegation play-off position and it’s not beyond the realms of possibility that they could catch third from bottom Bruff over the remainder of the season as they trail the County Limerick men by just six points with three games to go.

Against Harlequins on Saturday, Omagh opened the scoring, going 12-0 up through tries from Ben Henry and Ryan Mitchell before Harlequins came storming back to engineer a 12-14 advantage.

But the Accies came back with Joe Duff making it 17-14 with their third try of the day before the interval and when Josh Kyle secured the bonus point to make it 22-14 after the restart all looked rosy at the Thomas Mellon Playing Fields.

And things got even better when Mark Hopton-Brown registered a fifth try of the day for the home side, but Harlequins regrouped and mounted some sustained pressure on the Accies line, which yielded one converted try as Omagh held on for what could prove to be a vital win.

“We played really well, the defence was very good and we scored some good tries, so it was a good day,” Clyde beamed.

“We still have things to work on, to improve on every week. We need to kick on over these last three games when we go to Monkstown, host Dolphin and are away to Clonmel.”