Gap at Top widens as Toon beat PSNI

JKC BMW sponsored Ballymoney RFC entertained PSNI on Saturday in a critical league encounter which saw first play second place in the league. Ballymoney had a number of absentees from the past week’s game which saw Andrew Millar and Jason Taggart come into the squad. A solid display for the 2nd XV in the Tweed Cup game on Boxing Day earned Aaron Brown a call up to the starting line-up.
Although still early in the season Ballymoney knew a win would keep a safeguard of points between them and their nearest league rivals. This brought about some pressure and nerves on the young Ballymoney 1st XV which resulted in some mistakes early on. The game started off at a good pace with PSNI using their large ball carries in the back row and centre to strike hard at the Ballymoney defence. Ballymoney however where up to the task with some stern early defence. In attack the young back line tried the move the ball wide to use the advantage of pace they had on the wings but some poor handling and unforced errors from backs and forwards gave procession back easily to PSNI. From a Penalty 10 minutes in PSNI went ahead after their scrum half converted it to make the score 0-3.
It was these errors and a growing penalty count at the breakdown that was to allow PSNI to attack the Ballymoney line for the first time after 20mintues. A lineout 5 metres out was stopped but the PSNI second row spun out of the back of the maul and used his size to crash over from a few metres out. The conversion went wide to leave the score 0-8.
Another penalty for poor discipline at the ruck was converted from PSNI to extend their lead to 11-0 with 25minutes played. Ballymoney showed some good play to stretch the PSNI defence but too often either a 50:50 off load didn’t go to hand or a penalty let PSNI off the hook and allowed them to clear the pressure.
Then two pieces of hard work from individuals had a big impact on the result. PSNI lunched a high kick with the Ballymoney fullback out of position. The PSNI fullback and Ballymoney winger competed only for the larger visiting player to gather and make a break for the line. However, Ballymoney second row Bleakly was on hand to react and chase the PSNI player down to not only provide an excellent cover take but create the turnover to clear the danger.
Moments later the direct play from the PSNI 12 seemed to have paid off when some sloppy tackling in midfield allowed him to break the line and step the fullback. Just as he was sprinting into score Ballymoney winger Brown had raced off his wing to put in a try saving cover tackle to stop the attack. Again, Ballymoney could get back and turnover the ball and clear the lines.
Towards the end of the half Ballymoney did miss two kickable penalties in front of the posts which could have closed the gap.
At half time the players didn’t seem flustered but knew if they stuck to the game play and cut out the errors the game was well within their grasp. The second half started with some huge carriers led by Captain McFetridge. Any kicks back from PSNI where field superbly by fullback Nevin and returned with interest. PSNI couldn’t cope with the direct approach of the home side and started now to get on the wrong side of the referee. From a kick to the corner the lineout was gathered and the maul set off. After several meters the evergreen Taggart barged over the line to score the try and start the comeback. The try was converted from the touch line and Ballymoney were now back in the game at 7-11.
Another break from Ballymoney was stopped illegally under the posts. This time the PSNI outhalf was yellow carded and left the field. The penalty was converted to leave the score at 10-11. Shortly after this another moment of individual skill put Ballymoney in the lead. Fullback Nevin chipped over the defence and raced through to gather his kick and beat off the cover defence to score a great solo try. The conversation was added to extend the lead to 17-11.
Ballymoney knew the win was what was important and set about closing out the game lead by the experience of Jason Taggart. The forwards dominated the maul and scrum in the last 15 minutes to keep all play inside the PSNI half. The big defence effort limited PSNI any metres and this frustration resulted in another yellow card being turned into a red for PSNI due to decent to the referee.
The half-finished when PSNI killed a try scoring maul only a metre out. The referee awarded the penalty to Ballymoney but a flair up of handbags ended up with the Ballymoney Prop being red carded. With that the final moment of the game PSNI kicked the ball out to take home a well earned losing bonus point.
Man of the match: John McFetridge
Team: P. Irvine, K. McAneaney, I. Moxen, J. Bleakly, M. Allen, J. Taggart, D. McKeeman, J. McFetridge ©, M. Steele, A. Young, M. Bell, C. Watson, N. Steele, A. Brown, N. Nevin, M. Blair, A. Millar.
Coaches Comments: We targeted this as a must win game as with the win it puts some distance between us and second place. It was also great to remain unbeaten in the league this year. Although things didn’t go our way in the first half we didn’t panic and stuck at our task. We recessed what went wrong and set new objectives at half time which the guys followed and that got us the win. We dominated the second period and our fitness again came through. A special mention must go to Jason Taggart who came in today to help us out due to injuries and he did an excellent job leading from the front to show there is life in the old dog yet!
Next Saturday we are at home to Lisburn in the Towns Cup. They’re a league above so it will be a big ask for us to get any result but we will hope to put in a good performance and see what happens. We know the intensity levels and physicality will be increased in that game so we need to work hard in training to up the tempo and cut out the errors.
The Towns Cup game v Lisburn will kick off at the Kilraughts Rd at 2.30pm and all support is welcome.