Dromore out of Cup at the hand of close rivals Hinch

Dromore 6

Ballynahinch 15

Dromore’s groundsmen worked overtime last week through the rain to keep this fixture alive and, to their credit, the pitch was passed playable at midday.

The excitement within the town grew as the young Dromore side eagerly awaited the arrival of their close neighbours and rivals Ballynahinch for this second round tie of the Powerade Town’s Cup.

Both sides, to their credit, tried to play rugby despite the awful conditions and it was home side Dromore who took the lead on 15 minutes when Cobb popped over a simple penalty. ‘Hinch replied with determined running and when Harris set his outside backs free, they ran in a try when Dromore’s wide defence let them down.

Just before half-time, ‘Hinch doubled their lead down the left wing again when poor tackling allowed the visitor’s winger an easy path to the try line. Cobb added another penalty for Dromore and the sides entered the break with the scoreline at 10-6 to ‘Hinch.

The pitch was taking a battering and with more rain falling, the conditions became very difficult for both sides. Dromore lost their skipper Maguire when he injured his knee and when Andy Black was sin-binned, the ‘Hinch scored through fine close driving from their pack.

Dromore rallied in the closing quarter but could not breach the visitor’s defence, which was well organised and powerful all day. The game fizzled out in the damp conditions with Ballynahinch closing out the victory.

Dromore’s Coach Bekker was dissapointed after the game: “We competed well for most of the match but gave away a couple of soft tries which turned out to be the difference in the end. All credit must go to Ballynahinch who played very well in tough conditions. Our boys will be dissapointed but we must regroup and continue to work towards a top 4 finish in the league.”

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