Thirds maintain their 100% record

Bann Thirds 34

THE weather for this Junior League game was conducive to running rugby and that was exactly what Bann produced right from the start.

Mark Doherty opened the scoring with a well struck penalty kick. Bann continued to attack from every opportunity with Marc Eadie and Stevie Nelson dominating the lineouts and the front row of Andy Fulton, Mark Connolly and Gareth Jelly ensuring Bann had the upper hand in the scrummage.

With the backs cutting loose at every opportunity, supported by a very mobile back row of Matthew Bird, Andy Craig and Sam Boyd, it wasn't long until they were deep in the Malone 22. As Malone tried to clear their lines, centre Willie Taylor darted in, stole the ball, and popped it up to Andy Craig who forced his way over for a try. Doherty converted and Bann led 0-10.

With scrum-half Andy Cowan keeping the Bann attack going they soon had their second try scored by man of the match out-half Scott Jardine. Doherty maintained his 100% record with the boot by adding the conversion. Malone slotted over a penalty kick to leave them 3-17 in arrears at the interval.

The second half started with Malone stepping up their effort and forcing Bann to defend. Both wingers Calum Boland and Marty Armstrong played tremendously, both in attack and defence and kept the pressure on Malone.

Taylor was unlucky to be yellow carded, the referee having deemed him to have pushed the ball into touch with his hand while defended a Malone attack. However, Bann continued to attack with 14 men, with centre Andy Jordan very impressive with ball in hand. Armstrong got in for a great try during this period, Doherty duly converted and Bann led 03-24.

A comfortable lead seemed to lull Bann into a false sense of security and before long they had let Malone in for two easy tries and a closer score of 17-24.

However, Bann re-awoke, found their previous form and forced a penalty which the ever reliable Doherty converted.

With Malone continuing to throw everything at Bann, Jardine cleverly intercepted a pass and ran half the length of the pitch to score under the posts. Doherty converted, bringing his personal tally to 14 points and the final score to 17-34.

This is now three wins from three starts for the Thirds. They will have a stiff test next Saturday against similarly unbeaten Larne Seconds at Rifle Park. However if the team continue to train regularly and play with this flair they will be a hard team to beat this season.