Toon triumphant in battle with Boyne

Rugby

BALLYMONEY in what was only their second ever venture in the All-Ireland Junior Cup, welcomed Boyne Rugby Club to Kilraughts Road on Saturday.

In what proved to be a pulsating and exhausting encounter the local lads were able to triumph 27-23 after extra time and seal their place in the next round.

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A mild autumn afternoon provided a fantastic setting for what proved to be a great advertisement for junior rugby in Ireland. Ballymoney kicked off and quickly found themselves on the back foot having to defend an early spell of Boyne pressure.

Their aggressive defence was able to stand up to the task on this occasion and allowed them to relieve the pressure with some clearing kicks.

Gradually, Ballymoney were able to establish a foothold in the game with their forwards making some useful yardage around the breakdown. One of their sorties into the Boyne half resulted in an infringement from which captain James Cleland was able to convert a penalty for a 3-0 lead. This was quickly cancelled out by his opposite number at the other end. The Ballymoney pack continued their dominance at scrum time and just before halftime this pressure resulted in a turnover from which winger Ryan Brace was able to pick up and out sprint the defence up the narrow side to give Ballmoney an 8-3 lead at halftime.

The second half continued in the same vain as the first with both teams throwing everything at each other.

An early try from Boyne drew the two teams level.

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But Ballymoney quickly responded by gaining a territorial advantage, midway through the second half they were awarded a scrum 15 metres from the Boyne line and a pickup at number eight from John Richmond saw him use his explosive pace and footwork to beat the Boyne back row and score an outstanding individual try beneath the posts.

The conversion from Cleland was good and Ballymoney led 15-8.

However, Boyne were far from finished and began to show exactly why they have so far been unbeaten in the Leinster Junior League this season, stringing phases together and making Ballymoney work hard in defence.

This constant pressure eventually told when an advantage in numbers down the blindside resulted in a try close the posts for their outside centre. Unbelievably the simple conversion was missed and the Ballymoney still had a two point advantage. This didn’t last long as the trick was repeated again down the blindside for a converted score which gave Boyne the lead at 20-15.

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Sam Bartlett and Neil Mulholland were introduced into the pack to provide fresh impetus to the Ballymoney effort. The last 5 minutes say Ballymoney throw everything at the opposition and the pressure eventually told with Chris Watson getting over in the corner with the last play of the game. James Cleland had a kick to win the game and both sets of supporters held their breath, but the kick drifted narrowly wide and left both teams facing 20 minutes of extra time.

Further fresh legs were introduced by Ballymoney, Andrew Surgenor in the back row and Chris Beverland in the centre. This seemed to make a difference and ball carries by both resulted in Ballymoney coming close to taking the lead on a few occasions during the first period. The score did come from a piece of great defensive pressure from Neil Mulholland that resulted in him making a big hit on the Boyne fly-half and dislodging the ball, he then hacked ahead and despite the close attention of a Boyne winger he was able to ground the ball and give Ballymoney a precious lead which Cleland was able to stretch with the conversion.

The second half of extra time was spent mostly in the Ballymoney 22 with their defence being questioned numerous times.

An infringement saw Surgenor sent to the sin-bin, but to the relief of Ballymoney, Boyne decided to kick the penalty which made the score 27-23. This allowed Ballymoney to get out of their half and the forwards were able to keep possession of the ball for the last three minutes and close out the victory.

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Captain James Cleland was happy with the victory commenting: “The boys really put their hands up today and came out to prove a point. We still have a lot of things we need to work on in training but this victory will give us a bit of confidence and hopefully we can take that down to Cooke next week.”

This victory has landed Ballymoney an away quarter final to Monivea, the reigning champions from Connacht on Saturday 27th November.

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