Ballynahinch bring Braidmen's run to an an end

John Andrews' side will be disappiointed to have missed a chance to go top of the table as they led their Ulster rivals by 15 points to three at one stage.

With both teams having taken a maximum of 15 points from their opening three games, a tight game was in prospect and that was how it proved, with both teams having good spells on the ball and defensively sound.

The game was 10 minutes in when the first opportunity for points came from a penalty given away by Ballynahinch at the breakdown from which David O'Hara slotted it over to make it 3-0 in the home teams favour.

From the restart 'hinch had a good spell of possession and they were rewarded after 15 minutes of play with a penalty from which out-half Ryan Bambry made no mistake to bring the teams level again at 3-3.

A short time after the restart Ballymena took the game by the scruff of the neck and were applying real pressure on the 'Hinch line when Bambry went down injured and this was the last action of the influential out-half as he was replaced on 25 minutes by Harry McAleese.

The home side at this stage were dominating everything except the scrum were they were under real pressure but importantly started to take control of the breakdown area and after 35 minutes the pressure finally told when after some really good forward work the ball was moved out wide and 'Hinch ran out of men and Ballymena open side Paul Pritchard was on hand to go over in the corner to take the score to 8-3.

Ballymena were now rampant and after a few minutes of sustained pressure on the 'Hinch line and a poor clearance kick by Ballynahinch out-half Ballymena had a lineout 10 metres out hooker James Taggart hit his man and the pack mauled over at ease with loose head prop James Carson coming up with the ball David O'Hara converted to make it 15-3 to Ballymena.

Deep into injury time hinch were rewarded with penalty which took the half time score to 15-6.

The second half got under way and it was 'Hinch who started the better and applying all the pressure.

At this stage the visitors replaced prop Jerry Cronin, who had played for Ulster on Friday night, with Jonny Simpson who added quite a number of pounds to the already dominant hinch scrum and after only a few minutes on the pitch he got the ball in hands a few metres from the Ballymena line and there was only one outcome, the big prop going over out wide. The conversion was missed this left the score 15-11.

The score stayed like that for about 15 minutes and slowly but surely the hinch scrum was starting to dominate even more and when a scrum on the five yard line was awarded on 72 minutes things did not look good.

Ballynahinch now really applied the pressure and after Ballymena had collapsed the scrum three times a penalty try was awarded which was converted to take the score to 18-15 in Ballynahinch's favour.

For the remainder of the game Ballymena pushed but the visitors held firm and took the points to leave them on 19 points, one ahead of UCD in second and Ballymena in third on 16 points.

Both teams were short of players but Ballymena having lost Luke Marshall to Ulster and Simon Shawe to Leinster were under pressure in certain areas, particularly the scrum, and they will be hoping both these players will become available again soon.

After a break this weekend, Ballymena go into three AIL games on the run up to Christmas against teams in the lower reaches of the table - Clonakilty, Old Wesley and Thomond.

If Ballymena can produce positive performances in those games, they can still aim to be top of the table going into the winter break.