Rugby coach philosophical as defeat dents promotion hopes

The dream looked to be alive as the Braidmen led leaders Belfast Harlequins 17-12 in stoppage time at Eaton Park on Saturday.

But just as it seemed Ballymena would hold on for a memorable victory, the referee called play back, sin-binned Darrell O’Kane and from the resultant penalty, Harlequins piled on the pressure which resulted in a try to level the scores before Ian Porter broke Ballymena hearts by adding the conversion to give the Deramore side victory.

Andrews said afterwards: “You get decisions some times which are close and go against you and it is just one of those things. Yes it is disappointing to lose in that manner,

“But it was the small things again that hurt us, we just could not see it out and they showed a bit of courage to go for it all at the end and they got there.

“In the first half they had missed a few shots at goal and we had held out well defending and certainly at half time leading 7-5 you could see the boys were confident that we had the beating of them, particularly because they had been so strong up front.

“We then went 14-5 ahead and had another glorious opportunity to really finish the game off, and took the wrong decision at the time.

“We had worked on our game management with our back three and halfbacks and I think that did show bucket loads today, our fullback Ricky Andrew had a very intelligent game, kicking the ball at the right time, counter attacking at the right time and really we had made a big step up, as everyone did.”

“I thought the front row which finished the game really dug in and worked hard, but had a penalty try against and to be fair when a scrum like Harlequins today got a five metre start on, it would be hard to stop.”

“We are pleased with our season, happy with the brand of rugby we are trying to play and we feel it is getting better every time we go out on the park.

“It is a matter now of getting to the next level where we win these tight games against the sides at the top.

“It is a young team and certainly the experience gleaned in all these games will help. We have bought into long term here and the plan is to ensure Ballymena is a major force again over the next year or two,” added Andrews.