Toon sweep aside derby rivals

The trip to Coleraine rugby had been postponed on a number of occasions over the Christmas period, but due to a bye for both sides in the towns' cup the fixture was fulfilled on Saturday.

The match ended with a 24-5 victory for the Ballymoney side, the first victory for Ballymoney at Rugby Avenue for the 1st XV in many a year.

It had been a long lay off over Christmas for both sides. Ballymoney had not played since the 12th of December, and Coleraine had only just got playing the week before.

Both sides were eager to take advantage of any rustiness early on. Coleraine made inwards from the start of the game, using their heavier pack to pummel the Ballymoney defence.

Ballymoney's defence showed that it had came through the Christmas period well, with some great hits from the Ballymoney back row and centres.

Ballymoney were starved of possession for most of the first half due to the efforts of the Coleraine back row and too many unforced penalties being given away.

Coleraine were unable to take anything from three penalty goal attempts and the score remained at nil.

The game was scrappy for the majority of the first half with both teams attempting to make their mark on the other, Ballymoney seemed to dominate scrums and line outs but when it came to the third or fourth phase possession broke down or the ref penalised the away side.

It was Coleraine's back row player Connor Smyth who was first to feel the full wrath of the referee however, when he was sin binned for hitting Chris Watson high in a tackle.

Ballymoney came close to scoring in the dieing moments of the 1st half when a loose clearance kick from Coleraine fell into the arms of winger Ryan Brace. He gassed down his wing beating two players only to be tackled into touch just short of the line. Half time came and the game was finely balanced on a knife edge, both teams knew that whoever scored the first points would hold a major influence on the outcome of the game. Ballymoney upped their game and managed to secure a spell of possession. They made inwards into the Coleraine half and put them under pressure but were held up over the line.

The resulting scrum saw Ballymoney show their dominance, the ball came in and the scrum heaved towards the home side's goal line, the forward momentum made it easy for Ballymoney's number 8 sleepy Dave Campbell to cross the line for the first points.

Ballymoney got a sniff of the line and weren't content to sit back and wait for more. The Ballymoney backline began to stretch their legs and pushed forward over the next stages of the game through a number of well worked moves. Martin Irwin and Chris Watson were allowed space on a couple of occasions only to be brought down in the opponents 22. However, efforts were not in vain. Ballymoney were able to create another try through sustained pressure from the forwards, releasing Irwin who floated a pass into his outside centre Keith Thompson's hands for him to score in the corner. The resulting kick from the faithful boot of James Cleland took Ballymoney's points tally to 14.

The final try from the Ballymoney side came from another spell of domination by the Ballymoney pack. Pick and go after pick and go put the Coleraine defence on the back foot and some big last ditch tackles caused confusion and disorientation on both sides. From loose ball Player Coach Jason Taggart was able to show that despite being one of the oldest in the squad he has still got a bit of juice left in the tank as he dodged through attempted tackles from the Coleraine backline to score beneath the posts.

Coleraine would not be happy to have been kept to nil at home by a Ballymoney side and in the last 10 minutes threw everything the had left in the tanks at Ballymoney.

The valiant efforts were rewarded through a try in the last minute of the game but it was too little to late for Coleraine and Ballymoney ran out as winners 24-5.

Captain James Cleland said "I'm happy with how the boys played today especially after a long lay off, its never easy to beat Coleraine in Coleraine. Hopefully we can build more momentum from this game for a lot of big matches over the next weeks and months".