Thumping of visitors Bective sees promoted Omagh move to top of table

EYE-catching result of the weekend? Well, that was at Omagh Academicals where the home side obliterated Bective to the tune of 52-17, a result which took the Tyrone side to the top of the Division 2C table.

Not bad for a side back in the AIL for the first time in two decades who have now won two and drawn one to claim a total of 12 points from a possible 15.

Phil Marshall’s squad took maximum points and scored eight tries with Stewart McCain, James Catterson (below) and Luke Hanson all claiming a brace of touchdowns.

Also in 2C, Bangor were at Midleton and made up for their first loss the week before at Seapoint by beating the Munster men 15-8 thanks to tries from Lewis Bret and replacement Marty Withers.

Up in 2A, Armagh’s thumping 42-18 victory at home over Corinthians gave them their third win from as many games and ensured that they nudged Malone into spot.

The squad skippered by ex-Ulster player Ali Birch scored six tries in their bonus point victory while Malone had things much tighter at Cashel though Paddy Armstrong’s players prevailed 1816 to also stretch their winning run to all three outings.

Michael Cartmill and Rory Campbell scored tries with the latter adding a conversion and two penalties — the second one in injury time to win the game — as Malone took the four points.

Elsewhere, Queen’s University also shaded matters at Highfield, winning 16-14 which took them up to third with all three Ulster clubs now occupying the first three places in the table.

In 2B, Rainey Old Boys defeated Belfast Harlequins 23-7 at Deramore with the Magherafelt side moving up to fourth.

City of Derry lost at home to Skerries by 38-25 while Dungannon were swept aside 36-5 by Old Crescent.

Results: 2A: Cashel 16 Malone 18, Armagh 42 Corinthians 18, Galwegians 26 Blackrock 22, Highfield 14 QUB 16, Nenagh 28 Greystones 19

2B: Belfast Quins 7 Rainey 23, Derry 25 Skerries 38, Dungannon 5 O Crescent 36, Barnhall 21 Navan 15, Wanderers 42 Sun Well 26

2C: Bruff 20 Sligo 20, Malahide 31 Tullamore 22, Midleton 8 Bangor 15, Omagh 52 Bective 17, Thomond 28 Seapoint 25.

second ZEBRE: M Minozzi; G Bisegni, T Boni, T Castello (c), M Bellini; C Canna, M Violi; A Lovotti, O Fabiani, D Chistolini; D Sisi, G Biagi; G Licata, J Meyer, R Giammarioli. Replacements: S Panico (for Lovotti, 40), L Krumov (for Biagi, 49) E Bello (for Chistolini, 63), G Venditti (for Boni, 64) L Luus (for Fabiani, 67), J Sarto (for Giammarioli, 74).

ULSTER: C Piutau; A Trimble, D Cave, L Marshall, L Ludik; C Leali’ifano, J Cooney; C Black, J Andrew, R Ah You; P Browne, I Henderson; M Rea, S Reidy, J Deysel. Replacements: K Treadwell (for Browne, 27), W Herbst (for Ah You, 49), A Warwick (for Black, 49) R Lyttle (for Ludik, 49) N Timoney (for Deysel, 54) D Shanahan (for Cooney, 63), A McBurney, (for Timoney, 77) Referee: Mike Adamson (SRU)

ULSTER’S winning run came to a surprising and sudden halt in Parma on Saturday with Director of Rugby Les Kiss admitting his side got exactly what they deserved against perennial strugglers Zebre.

Having won four of four games before the trip to northern Italy, the early pace-setters in Conference B were expected to secure a routine win and carry their momentum into Friday’s first inter-pro of the season against Connacht.

The hosts, now coached by former Irish international Michael Bradley, were themselves buoyed by a rare win against Southern Kings last week but, with the likes of Iain Henderson, Christian Leali’ifano, John Cooney and Jean Deysel brought back into Ulster’s starting line-up, few were predicting Kiss’s men would be suffering just a second ever defeat on Italian soil.

But, after the province coughed up nine turnovers to a determined Zebre defence, as well as missing almost a fifth of their tackles, the 27-23 win for an outfit whose very future seemed uncertain this summer was fully deserved.

Indeed, despite turning around 13-6 to the good after Andrew Trimble’s first-half try, an abysmal second 40 left the visitors relieved that Darren Cave’s lastgasp score at least earned a losing bonus to ensure it wasn’t a wholly fruitless trip.

While Ulster did bristle at the decision to chalk off a Wiehahn Herbst try for an offence in the maul, and the officials were certainly lax when it came to pinging offside, had Ulster went on to win after that late non-score, the better side assuredly would have lost.

With try-scorers Mattia Bellini and Gio Licata especially prominent, Kiss (right) acknowledged his side could not match the spirit and energy Zebre displayed while securing their first back-toback wins since April.

“You get out of this game what you earn, and we didn’t work hard enough to get what we wanted,” he blasted.

“You have to take your hat off to Zebre.

“They were coming off the line hard and really putting pressure on our skill-sets and they profited from that. They were spirited and it’s disappointing we didn’t match that.”

With Ulster having also struggled before ultimately holding off Treviso when they last visited Italy, as well as the newly added Cheetahs winning their third in succession over the weekend, the Australian added that this may now be the reality in a PRO14 which has not been the two-tiered competition of haves and have nots that it appeared in the first two weeks. “That’s the game now,” he added.

“This is the competition.

“We want to see these teams do well but not at our expense.” Ulster hope to have Marcell Coetzee and Lion Jared Payne back among their number for next Friday’s visit from Kier-