Queen's 'clicking' close as ​Josh Gibson keeping faith despite poor AIL run

The students suffered a third consecutive defeat in Division 2A by going down 17-5 at the Dub against Greystones in driving rain and gale force winds.

“I think it's difficult, we’re obviously a young team and seeing games out is probably a skill that you develop just with experience...something that we're learning,” said Gibson, who missed last season due to injury. “Like we said at the end of block one, we should have been three from three...just things didn't go our way.

"And I think, as one of the senior players, senior players have got to step up and take control but we're just a couple of things away from clicking and going really well.

“Obviously I was looking forward to last year to getting in around the lads and getting my first season under my belt in 1B but didn't plan out that way in the end.

“I tore a tendon in my knee and was out for the entirety of the season, but it's been great since I got in...the lads have been really welcoming, it's a really easy culture to buy into so I'm definitely enjoying it now that I'm up and running.

“I was in pre-season and probably wasn't quite ready to cope with the training demands and it just broke down in the end and then the rehab was a bit of a struggle as well, plenty of complications.

"But came out the other side of it better for it, I think...I’m enjoying my rugby.”

Gibson admits going into senior rugby is different from playing at school.

“it’s a big step-up, you go from playing against 16–17 year olds to grown men and, physically, it's a completely different ball game.

"It's easy to get the hang of it once you build your first few games, get a bit of confidence and, to be fair to the lads who have come out of school this year, for us they've really stepped up.”

Greystones proved more clinical than the students.

“If you look at our points-per-entry, they're probably pretty low compared to them,” said Gibson. “I think playing with that wind in the first half probably helped them, conditions got pretty bad in the second half and it was just so hard to hold on to the ball...we weren't good enough around our first-up collision.

“Our breakdown stuff, our ball retention, wasn't good enough so we didn't really give ourselves an opportunity to get back into the game.

“Another student team (next, UL Boh’s), probably be looking to play fast, play on top of teams...it should be an exciting game of rugby, so looking forward to it.”

Ballymena are top of the division after a 17-12 win at Galwegians, Dungannon sit second following the 14-9 win at home over Shannon.

Ballynahinch remain bottom of Division 1A despite getting the first win of the season, against Lansdowne.

Instonians made it two consecutive wins in Division 1B by edging Naas 32-27 as City of Armagh lost narrowly at Blackrock.

Clogher Valley sit top of 2B on points difference from Malone with the sides set to meet at Gibson Park on Saturday.

Clogher had a 24-19 win on the road at Skerries while Malone edged the Ulster derby 15-10 against Rainey.

Banbridge recorded a first success of the campaign with a single-point win over Enniskillen, while Ballyclare lost at Navan.