Ballymena 14 v UCD 16 (AI Cup)
After their recent victory against UCD in Dublin it was expected that Ballymena would go through to the next round of the All Ireland Cup. However UCD had different ideas and adapted to the atrocious conditions much better than the home side and won by 16 points to 14.
The coditions under which this match took place were pretty awful to say the least and the match started in heavy rain with a strong wind blowing from the Ballymena direction. After last week's match in Dublin the home side should have been aware of the capabilities of the visiting backs and as expected the students played as open a game as possible in the conditions. Ballymena on the other hand took them on up front but as the match progressed it was obvious that this was a mistake.
Ballymena played well in the forwards but it was a hard slog in the wet, muddy and slippery conditions and there was absolutely no threat to the opposition line. Mostly it was a hard battle that gor bogged down in the middle of the field.
UCD played with the elements in the first half and took advantage of the strong wind to push Ballymena into their own half at every opportunity. They ran the ball openly defying the conditions and in the early stages most of the play was in the home half. Then the breakthrough came in the 10th minute when full back michael Hatings joined the line and outpaced the home defence to scorewide on the left. Under the conditions it was definitely not a day for kickers so the try went unconverted.
The visitors kept coming at Ballymena and although they took most of what was thrown at them mistakes were plentiful and the students were quick to sieze on every opportunity. In the 16th minute another fine break by number eight Kevin McLaughlin made ground into the home 22 and when the ball broke from the tackle Brian O'Neill was on hand to pick it up and race away for try number two.
After this Ballymena had a good spell and Chris Smith was making good dround with his kicking but it was still the visitors who were dominating proceedings. In the 23rd minute home hopes rose slightly when visiting prop John Lee was yellow carded but things were evened up 2 minutes later when Ian Caldwell suffered the same fate.
On another UCD foray into the Ballymena 22 the home side conceded a penalty in front and Ian Keatley gladly accepted the gift to take the gap to 13 points. Ballymena took the game to UCD after this and actually started to feel confident enough to run the ball and did so successfully putting the visitors under pressure. After a good passing move Johnny Burgess was held up on the line. From the resulting scrum Andy Graham forced his way over for a try to reduce the leeway. UCD came back strong and, in injury time, their pressure forced another penalty which Ian Keatley again converted to make the half time score 16 points to 5 in favour of the visitors.
After last week's brilliant comeback all the home fans would be thinking of another win and two minutes after the re-start a penalty from Chris Smith raised hopes further. Five minutes later another penalty meant there was onlu five points between the teams and the home hopes were raised even further.
On the hour hopes were raised even more when Dirkie Strydom was introduced but try though they might all their efforts were well defended by the visitors. Ballymena still relied on the forwards who appeared to get bogged down in the middle of the field. Ballymena did not take advantage of the elements and play for the corners. The kicking from hand was poor and really only gave the ball back to the students who were still willing to run the ball at every opportunity.
Ballymena got another 3 points from a Strydom penalty with about 5 minutes to go but for the rest of the match had to defend desperately as the students decided to play the remainder of the match in the Ballymena 22.
Ballymena: A Maxwell; J McGrugan, J Burgess, J Smith, A Smith (D Strydom 60); C Smith, D Drake; A Kirkpatrick (T Court 65), S Douglas (M Harshaw 70), T Court (S Shawe 40), I Caldwell, D Best, A Graham, A Cupples, B Young.
