Toon hit half century despite slow start

TOON HIT HALF CENTURY DESPITE SLOW START IN CAVAN

On Saturday, the JKC BMW Sponsored Ballymoney 1st XV made the long trip south to play Cavan . Due to road diversions en route the team arrived 25minutes before kickoff, leaving pre match preparations hectic to say the least .
Cavan kicked off and with Ballymoney 'still on the bus ' the home team spurned two opportunities to take the lead with their kicker missing two penalties in the opening five minutes. However, following a scrum on half way , Money were awarded a penalty which Young kicked to the corner and from the ensuing lineout , McCollum peeled from the catch & drive to open the scoring with Young converting , 7-0 Ballymoney
Soon afterwards Moxen was denied a certain try after a huge drive as the referee penalising him for apparently leading with the forearm!
A stubborn home defence and a misfiring Toon attack meant there were no further score before half time and Money were lucky not to concede just before the break when the Cavan 8 was held up over the line just before the break .
A few harsh words from coach James Clelland at half time reignited the flames of the away team and soon into the second half, Cavan were penalised just outside the 22, skipper McFetridge pointed for posts and Young nailed over the penalty.
From the restart, the ever dominating Toon pack battered up the middle deep in Cavan 22 . From another penalty, big Matthew Blair drove over the line but unable to ground the ball , got it back to Calum McDonald who won't score an easier try, this again converted by Young.
Now in the groove again , another fine forward drive by Irvine led to Matthew Steele adding no 3 with Young converting .
Bonus point try was secured by a turnover being kicked through and Nathaniel Steele setting down over the line with Young adding the extras .
Big Neal Mulholland added the try of the game with an excellent line break from a dummy switch as Steele pulled the home defence apart. Young conversion followed.
With Cavan out on their feet , big John McFetridge carved a wake of destruction through the Cavan defence, leaving space out wide and after fast hands out wide , Nigel Nevin beat two defenders to join the scoresheet.
No 8 McCollum was then binned for retaliation to foul play for the Cavan No 6 who had been seemingly intent in injuring anyone in a blue shirt !
The final passage of play finished with MOTM Mulholland diving between the posts for his second of the game and following the conversion, the ref blew his whistle leaving the final score 50-0.
James Clelland commented "our objective was to come and get the bonus point, this was achieved despite the poor first half but our second half performance was much improved. Next week we travel to Lurgan in the cup ,we need to continue our hard work on the training field as they will be a much stiffer test ,although we will travel there confident in our own ability."
Many thanks to those who made the long journey south with us on Saturday, the team appreciates the support and everyone enjoyed a few refreshments on the long trip home !!