Derby success for Black Knights

Ards Rugby’s Black Knight were in action at the weekend with a local derby against Civil Service at Stormont. The team was a mix of youth and experience with Ben Thompson making in his debut in senior rugby, Adam Fry was back from a long term injury and Andy Savage put the boots on for his first outing of the season.
 
Ards kicked off and with a dominant pack took play into the Service half, Flanker Matt Bell went on one of his trade-mark runs and brushed off several defenders to get the opening, Alex Gaw converted. Civil Service 0 v Ards 7
Bell left the field shortly after this with an ankle injury, however, there would be no relieve for Service as his replacement was the rampaging Davy Thompson.  
It took another 10 minutes before Ards got their next score, a scrum on Service 5-metre line saw a pick-up from No.8 Adam McKee who broke the gainline before offloading to centre Oren Kisby to go over for the score.
 
More was to come with Ards moving the ball well through the hands, hooker Robert Hull found himself out wide and backed himself using his power to step back inside skipping three defenders to run under the posts to score, Gareth Doherty converted
 
The Ards backline started to click and good play between Doherty and Gaw gave the perfect platform for Savage to cut through the Service defence to score a great try, Gaw converted. 

Service restarted and put pressure on the Ards defence, putting the Black Knights on the back foot for the first time in the game, following a quick tap and go the Service number 8 ran into a Kisby which was deemed illegal and Kisby was yellow carded. This only galvanised the Ards defence as they held strong for the remaining 10 minutes to half time.
 
Service started the second half strong; winning a penalty for Ards not releasing in the tackle and opted to kick for 3 points to open their scoring.

Ards settled back into their rhythm and kicked a penalty to the corner for a 5 metre lineout.  An excellent lineout take from McKee, provided ball for Thompson to crash over on the blindside for a try. 

Continued Ards pressure followed and the next score came from a Andy Matchett pick-up from the scrum, drifting blind before selling a dummy and stepping past 2 defenders to score. 
 
Service returned the favour with a score of their own, before the final try of the day went to debut Ben Thompson on the wing.  An excellent solo effort beating multiple players to score out on the wing, the conversion by Alex Gaw left the final score 10-43 to the Black Knights