1st XV v Derry
Ballymena 45 City of Derry 3
Ulster Senior League
Sat 23rd Sep 2006
Ballymena entertained City of Derry firsts at Eaton Park on Saturday
and had litle trouble from the visitors in a far from convincing victory
by 45 points to 3.
The score would suggest a very one sided match, and indeed it was, but
after a good first half in which the home side built up a lead of 31 points
to 3 the second half was a bit of an anti-climax with Ballymena having
most of the possession but reverting to going through the motions and
making too many errors and only adding two tries from numerous chances.
This is not acceptable at any time but when it comes to the AIL it could
be the difference between losing and winning.
Ballymena started off taking the game to COD with the front five, especially
the front row, prominent in the attacks. The front row were very big and
strong but also showed that they are quite mobile. Tom Court was making
a first appearance at Eaton Park and I am sure everybody was impressed
with his display. He capped a fine performance with a great try before
leaving the field with an injury.
Dirkie Strydom had an early chance to put Ballymena ahead but he pulled
a penalty effort left of the posts.Undeterred, Ballymena continued to
play in the visitors 22 and got their just rewards in the 8th minute when
Chris Henry finished off a period of pressure with a try which D Strydom
converted.
The game was then mainly played in the centre of the pitch and an exchange
of penalties was all that was scored until the half hour. Then the home
props and second row came alive again and tore holes in the COD defence.
Then from a lineout the ball went to Peter Budina who wormed and wriggled
his way into the visitor’s 22 before off-loading to Arian Saunderson
who scored try number 2 which D Strydom converted.
After this the constant pressure told and before the half had ended Tom
Court broke off the back of a ruck to score a try and then a brilliant
passing movement from their own 22 was finished off by James Ritchie who
was filling in, and admirably so, for the injured Johnnie Burgess. Both
were converted by D Strydom with the second being a superb kick from the
left touch line.
Ballymena continued to dominate in the second half and 13 minutes into
the half Peter Budina, who was having a superb game, had scored two tries
and D Strydom converted both for a personal tally of 15 points. After
this the game petered out with Ballymena still in control but their game
was riddled with errors and they too often allowed the visitors to come
into the game. However anything that COD threw at Ballymena they coped
with quite easily and their line was never really troubled.
Next week Ballymena travel to Dungannon and they will need to repeat the
performance of Saturday’s first half and sustain it for two halves
not one.
Ballymena: D Strydom; A Smith, P Budina, J Ritchie (J McGrugan 53), C
Woods; S Young, P Spence; A Kirkpatrick (J Taggart 65), M Harshaw, T Court
(C Allen 53), I Caldwell, B Young, A Saunderson, G Moore, C Henry (D Best
53).
