Toon Foyled by City

BALLYMONEY 1ST XV travelled to City of Derry Rugby Club on Saturday to come up against the biggest challenge of their season so far.

City of Derry have been the dominating force in Junior Rugby for the past two seasons and are pushing hard for promotion. The game was a well contested game but City of Derry showed their superiority and ran out as victors, with a final score of 38 points to 13, despite the score at 35 minutes into the game being 6-0 in Ballymoney’s favour.

Ballymoney started the game well and put a lot of early pressure on the home side. Both teams pounded each others with hard lines from their forwards but defences in Junior rugby have got so good it was hard for either team to make any influence on the scoreboard. It was only through a number of penalties given by the referee that Ballymoney were able to put points on the board. 2 kicks from the boot of James Cleland put the away side in front.

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This gap was soon closed when the dynamic City of Derry side put themselves into gear and started to put a few tries through the Ballymoney defensive line. Six tries in total were scored on the day. Although the score line may flatter the home side the game was not a complete washout, Ballymoney came close on a number of occasions, Jonny Linton coming closest.

The efforts of the away side eventually payed off in the dying moments of the second half, when after a period of persistent pressure, Ballymoney set up a ruck on the five meter line. Ryan Clyde ran a dummy line a drew in the Derry players and allowed winger Chris Watson to score to take Ballymoney’s points tally to 13.

Captain James Cleland said: “ We always knew this would be a tough game, Derry are a good side with a lot a talent in the backs and forwards. We are obviously disappointed with the result but we are happy with how we played and stuck at it till the end.”

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