1st XV v Ballynahinch
Ballynahinch 10 Ballymena 32
Ulster Senior League
Sat 2nd Sep 2006
Ballymena travelled to Ballynahinch and I am sure were expecting to win
but were maybe hoping for a more convincing display than the one against
senior league newcomers Rainey OB last week. The win was achieved by 32
points to 10 but it was a far from emphatic display and yet again the
play was riddled in errors with too many try scoring opportunities thrown
away with poor passing and bad handling.
Ballymena got off to a bad start and went a try behind after 3 minutes.
Ballynahinch forced an early scrum close to the Ballymena line and won
the ball. It was moved quickly along the line and Aaron Ferris scored
in the corner. Dirkie Strydom reduced the leeway with a penalty but neither
side really stamped their mark on a very poor game ridled with errors
by both sides.
Ballynahinch put a long probing kick into the Ballymena 22 and got a lucky
bounce into touch. While the visitors were trying to regroup the home
side took a quick throw and moved the ball along the line and Kyle Corrigan
score try number 2. Ballymena had little to offer but in a foray into
the home half in the 34th minute they forced a penalty which Dirkie Strydom
put over the posts.
Just before half time Ballymena did manage a period of sustained pressure
in the home 22 and from a scrum Chris Henry picked up and went over for
a try. This gave Ballymena the lead for the first time by 11 points to
10.
Ballymena started the second half on the attack but yet again errors at
crucial times prevented much-needed scores. However Ballymena did get
another try 3 minutes into the half when Glen Moore picked up a loose
ball and bulldozed his way over for try number 2. Dirkie Strydom converted
to give bllymena an 8 points lead.
This seemed to liven the Braid men up and they seemed to want to take
the game to the home side and from a good phase of play Johnny Burgess
got over for another try with Dirkie adding the points.
The ugly side of rugby appeared in the 55th minute when most players were
involved in a bout of fisticuffs. When the dust had settle all the guilty
parties got off scot-free but Darren Best who had tried hard to stop the
brawl was wrongly yellow-carded.
Even with 14 men Ballymena still managed to keep the home side on the
defence and when they were back to full strength they continued to play
most of the game in the home half. In injury time Chris Henry got his
second try with Dirkie adding the points to make the final score 32 points
to 10.
The hoped for improvement did not materialise and although the score suggests
a good win it was far from it. Too many times Ballymena players made unforced
errors and made very poor passes at crucial times in promising moves.
Next week the first home game of the season is against Banbridge and hopefully
in the incoming week the coach will be able to iron out some of the problems
and perhaps Banbridge will be on the wrong end of a large score.
Ballymena: D Strydom; A Smith, P Budina, J Burgess, C Woods; S Paul, P
Spence; A Kirkpatrick (C Allen 56), M Harshaw (A Ferguson 65), S Shaw,
D Best (N Greenan 74), B Young, G Moore, A McGrugan, C Henry.
