Welsh tourists too strong for Ballymena U-19s

The Ballymena side was a mixture of the normal U19s, who had played a match in the morning, and the Ballymena Academy side which recently won the schools cup.

The well organised visitors took the lead with a well worked try in the 10th minute. However Ballymena were battling well and got a try of their own in 15 minutes.

With half time approaching the tourists were on the attack and the home defence got a bit mixed up and Colwyn got their third try and a conversion to make the half time score 12 points to 5.

As the second half wore on the home side faded a bit, probably because of their exertions in the morning, and the visitors showed what a good attacking side they were.

Man of the match was Jack Fleming the Ballymena scrum half. After the match both sides exchanged plaques and pennants at the start of what will hopefully be a long association.

Earlier in the day, the under-19s recorded a 52-13 win over Ophir at Mallusk.

A five-metre scrum saw a lift by number eight Knox who crashed over for the first try. This was converted by outhalf Wiggins, the first of six conversions for the day.

The Ballymena forwards again took the game to Ophir and it was not long before the impressive Mulholland got his name on the score sheet, driving past several defenders to dive across the line. Ophir hit back quickly with a penalty under the posts but Ballymena closed the half with another slick backline move which saw scrum half Scullion score under the posts.

It was not long before another move saw inside centre Smyth release Andrew Knox who took great delight in joining his brother on the scoresheet with an excellent try. With Wiggins continuing to kick the conversions the game was now drifting away from Ophir. Despite a further penalty and a breakaway try the hosts could do little to stop the onslaught.

As they moved into the last quarter of the game Ballymena continued to exert pressure and further score were added from Mulholland and Knox. However the backs also got into the action with Matthew Mullholland collecting a loose Ophir pass to sprint fully 60 yards before scoring under the posts.