Belfast Harlequins ran out comfortable winners in this Ulster Senior League fixture at Shaws Bridge on Saturday afternoon.
The main attraction for many in the large crowd was the return to Quins’ colours of Ulster’s Darren Cave, for the first time in two years, but the star of the show was teammate Andrew Pollock who ran in four tries in this nine try romp for the visitors.
First on the score sheet was Quins prop Mark McGrath who dived over the line, Chris Ashton like, after finding himself in space out wide. Quins’ Michael Heaney unfortunately had a miserable day with the boot and failed to land the conversion.
Instonians tried to respond but Quins cleared their line with a searing break from Andrew Pollock and shortly after the visitors industrious centre William Stewart broke clear on the right to touch down under the posts. Heaney pushed the conversion wide leaving the score at 0 – 10.
Dynamic winger Michael Allen was next to cross after a midfield break from Darren Cave pushing the score on to 0 – 15, but Instonians hit back straight from the kick off with prop Alan Whitten driving over from close range taking the score to 5 – 15.
Quins, however finished the half in style with winger Pollock finishing off a break from Stewart taking the half time score to 5 – 20.
The Deramore Park side were first on the score sheet in the second half with a pushover try following a period of pressure close to the line. Heaney added his only conversion of the game taking the score to 5 – 27 and the visitors continued to rattle up the scores with Michael Allen crossing shortly after pushing the score on to 5 – 32.
Instonians bagged their second try with hooker David McGovern slipping a few tackles to force his way to the line and with Scott Brown converting the score moved on to 12- 32.
Quins’ Pollock took over proceedings for the remainder of the game running in three more tries to cap a fine personal performance with the game ending Instonians 12 Belfast Harlequins 47.
