Money made to work hard for win

JKC sponsored Ballymoney RFC 1st XV entertained high flying Strabane at the Kilraughts road on Saturday and in a close fought encounter they finished the stronger team to win 28-8 and remain unbeaten in the league.
In good conditions Ballymoney were eager to get back on the pitch not having played in 2 weeks. From the kickoff Ballymoney looked the brighter team as Neal Mulholland chased and gather the Ballymoney Kick off. The ball was moved left to right for several phases but the well organised Strabane defence was resilient to any Ballymoney attack. A knock on in the edge of the Strabane 22 gave the visitors a scrum and from that scrum you could see the visitors intensions as they kept the ball in and applied pressure to work the penalty. The visitor’s outhalf cleared their lines.
This was to be the story of the first half with the home team forcing play too much and leading to some handling errors and the visitors gaining advantage from the scrum. One penalty on the 10metre line was converted to give the visitors a 0-3 lead.
Some storming runs from captain McFetrigde and centres Steele and Watson put Strabane under pressure but again either handling errors or slow reactions at the breakdown allowed Strabane to clear their lines. One of those clearance kicks from their own half bounced wickedly inside the home teams half and made another 40metres. Fullback Nevin raced back to clear but good pressure from a few Strabane backs lead to a charge down and the first try of the game to the visitors. The conversion was missed but Strabane now lead 0-8.
Ballymoney continued to make gains into the Strabane territory and the home team’s lineout was starting to dominate play taking not only their own ball but most of the visitor’s ball too. Another break from McFetridge yielded a penalty 30metres out in front of the posts. Young stepped up and converted to close the gap to 3-8.
The closing play of the half set the tone for the second half. From another scrum penalty Strabane moved the ball deep into the Ballymoney half and a short lineout on the edge of the 22 started a maul. Ballymoney defence was excellent and Strabane were forced backwards until prop Matthew Blair turned the ball over and won a penalty for his team. The ball was kicked out and the referee blew for half time.
The second half started off with Ballymoney in dominance and this was the way the half was to play out. Strabane defence held firm and was hard to break down. Line breaks from Blair, Mulholland and Watson were ended again by a knock off from a forced pass. Ballymoney were edging closer to a try and when it looked like they had numbers a Strabane player slapped the ball out of scrum half Steele hands and was rewarded with a yellow card. Young knocked over the close penalty to narrow the score again to 6-8.
Young was on the score board again soon after when another break from Watson took play deep into Stabane half. The ball was shifted to the narrow side and Young decided to back himself, throw the dummy and his pace and power took him over for the home side first try. The conversion was added to leave the score 13-8.
A second penalty attempt went wide but Ballymoney were still on the ascendancy and knocked over a penalty on 60 minutes to take the score to 16-8. The second and best score of the game came from great link play between second row Neal Mulholland and centre Chris Watson which resulted in Watson ghosting through the gap and stepping 2 would be defenders to score. The conversion attempt hit the post but Ballymoney now lead 21-8.
The front row of Blair, Irvine and McAneaney had got to grips with the Strabane scrum and Blair was also putting in a man of the match performance in the loose with some storming runs. The last 10 minutes Ballymoney pushed to see if they could get a bonus point but the final try of the game came on the blow of fulltime. A break at the back of the scrum from Linton took play into the Strabane 10 metre line. The forwards trucked the ball up and Linton was on hand again to put in a clever cross-field kick and wing Matthew Bell gathered the kick and showed great strength to score on the young man’s debut of the 1st XV and cap off a good second half performance. The conversion from out wide was successful and Ballymoeny won the game 28-8.
Man of the Match Matthew Blair
Team: P.Irvine, K. McAneaney, I. Moxen, J. Bleakly, N. Mulholland, M. Allen, D. McKeaman, J McFetridge ©, M. Steele, A. Young, M. Bell, C. Watson, N. Steele, J. Linton, N. Nevin, M. Blair, A. Pollock
Coaches Comments: After the game coached Cleland and Hanna commented; “We made too many unforced errors in the first half which stopped us from putting together phases. The referee penalised us at the scrum in the first half which allowed Strabane to make a lot of ground from some good kicks. However going 8 points down our guys did not panic. Our defence allowed us to get onto of Strabane and give us time to get our attack functioning. As the game went on we showed our strength and our structure allowed us to take control and we scored some good trys. There were good performance from a number of players especially Watson, McFetridge, Blair and McKeaman. It was great to see Adam Pollock getting another good run out after signing for the club this year and Matthew Bell making the step up from U18 last year to not only earn a start but score a try on his debut.
We will work on the areas that didn’t go right today over this week’s training and push for another step up in performance against BHSFP next Saturday when they come to Kilraughts. Kick off is 2.30pm and all support is welcome.