Irvine scores try on senior debut

Banbridge 13

A FIFTH successive win in the All-Ireland League hoisted Banbridge up into third place in Division Three and eased the players’ long journey back from Clifden on Saturday evening.

This was not a vintage display by the Rifle Park side but there was no arguing about their entitlement to the spoils after they had dominated territorially for long spells in either half.

In the end they had to thank AIL debutant Stephen Irvine for the try that keeps them well-placed in the race for a top four play-off place. The Ulster U19 player reached his 18th birthday at the end of December and after featuring in the Seconds’ Towns’ Cup defeat the previous week at Ballynahinch, he was called up for his second senior game to play alongside brother Matthew in the back row.

His touchdown on the stroke of half-time, converted by Neville Farr, edged Bann into a lead which they were to retain throughout the second half. Farr kicked a penalty in the 63rd minute from 40 metres out to stretch the lead, the only score in a second period played out largely in the home half.

Bann showed a few other personnel changes from their last outing. With Dale Black having picked up a knock the previous week, Geoff Thompson lined up alongside Jonny Little in the centre. Paul Ross filled the No 2 shirt worn by Rory Best against Barnhall and Michael Cromie started at loose head prop.

Bann had the early pressure but turnover ball or knock-ons ensured that, initially at least, the Blacks’ line remained intact. Bann did manage to get the ball wide to right winger Alan Gibson on a couple of occasions but the covering defence snuffed out the danger.

The first real scoring opportunity came with a 25th minute penalty and Farr struck the ball cleanly from 37 metres range to notch three points.

For the next 10 minutes it was all Connemara as they laid siege to the Bann line. A chance to clear the danger from a free kick award just outside the 22 resulted in additional pressure when Bann failed to get the ball away cleanly from the set scrum.

Gibson tidied up from a kick close to the try line but was bundled into touch. Simon McKinstry’s efforts to stop a rolling maul from the lineout earned him a yellow card but Bann managed to hold out at the subsequent set piece.

A try for the home side looked a certainty when they ripped through the mid-field defence to set up a two-man overlap but they were denied by a knock-on.

However when another Bann free kick was taken quickly a pass went to ground under the posts and Connemara moved the ball slickly from subsequent play for left winger Peter O’Toole to ground the ball near the corner flag. A superb conversion from Sean Joyce gave the Blacks a 7-3 lead.

Despite being a man short Bann forced Connemara back into their own 22, spurning penalty chances to force a couple of five metre line-outs.

Before the pressure could be relieved Bann skipper McKinstry had re-joined the fray, but it was the younger Irvine brother who eventually found the narrowest of gaps in a well-constructed defensive wall to ground the ball behind the line.

Bann looked likely to claim a second try midway through the second period after being awarded penalties at the third and fourth of a series of scrums five metres out from the Blacks’ line. But when the packs locked horns for a fifth time the strike went against the head and the chance was gone.

The Monastery Field has always proved a difficult venue for Bann as they, like all visitors, find it an inhospitable acre in what is otherwise the most welcoming of locations. So Bann were probably content to settle for the four points which keeps them statistically above fourth-placed Nenagh.

Promotion from Division Three looks to have been settled already with high-flying Midleton and high-scoring Queen’s seemingly home and dry. But there are at least six teams battling it out for the two remaining play-off places.

Bann know that wins in their next two games, at home to Wanderers (February 13) and Portadown (February 20), are essential if they are to keep up their challenge.