Braidmen suffer Munster crunch

The match started off with the usual aerial exchanges and not a big lot of rugby being played but after five minutes, when all had come back to earth, Ballymena were on the attack in the visitors' half and were awarded a penalty. Davy O'Hara duly put it over to give the home side the lead.

This was short-lived however as back came Young Munster almost immediately with a penalty of their own to level the scores.

Young Munster appeared to be the stronger of the two packs but Ballymena were holding their own and midway through the half they put together some good phases and made good ground into the visitors' 22. Eventually they forced a penalty and went for the corner.

From the ensuing lineout the Braid men got possession and drove for the line. A scrum followed and Ballymena had another couple of dabs at the line until eventually Darrell O'Kane broke out to score. Davy O'Hara converted to make the score 10 points to 3 for Ballymena.

Back came Young Munster. From a scrum in the middle of the home half they got possession and pushed the home pack back into their own 22. There was a lineout in the corner and the home pack were pushed back again until captain Ger Slattery got the try to make the score 10 points to eight.

The match was drifting towards injury time and Ballymena appeared to be quite happy with their lead but a final surge in stoppage time gained Young Munster a penalty and Alan Kingsley put it over to give the visitors a half-time lead by 11 points to 10.

Early in the second half the visitors increased their lead with another penalty and then the home side had a setback when Davy O'Hara, who had had a great game in the first half, got injured and shortly after he was replaced.

This totally upset the balance of the home team and Young Munster were on top for a while. They were in the home 22 but Ballymena seemed to be in control. However a tardy attempted clearance was charged down and Alan Kingsley grabbed another try.

Both sides exchanged penalties and with 15 minutes left to play there was nine points between the sides. With time running out Ballymena had a drop out on their 22. Somebody was offside at the kick and from the ensuing scrum the visitors won possession, moved the ball quickly and James O'Neill broke away to score and increase their lead to 14 points.

All Ballymena could really hope for now would be a converted try to get a bonus point and all at the park thought they had scored a perfectly good try near the posts but the referee decided to disallow it and the game fizzled out with no further score.

Ballymena were in the match until Davy O'Hara left the pitch but after that it seemed to get away from them. The only consolation is that Galwegians lost as did Dungannon and Ballynahinch. Matches are running out and Ballymena are six points ahead of the bottom three.

They have to play Ballynahinch away and Dungannon at home so really they should not be drawn into the relegation scrap.

As it stands Galwegians are two points ahead of Ballymena for fourth place and these two sides still have to play each other in Galway so really a top four slot is not out of the question.

Ballymena: R McBurney; P Budina, I Whitten, C Brigl (C Smith 60), T Seymour; L Marshall, D O’Hara (G Fisher 50); J Carson (A Warwick 50), J Taggart (R Fisher 63), S Shawe, D O’Kane, B Young, A Kerr, R Hackney (P Smith 40), S McKinney.