Toon hearbreak on semi final defeat

​Heartbreak as Ballymoney narrowly miss out on final
On a wet and wintry November afternoon at Kilraughts Road , JKC sponsored Ballymoney 1st XV narrowly missed out on a trip to Kingspan as Armagh 2nd XV were triumphant in the semi-final of the Millar Wylie McCall Junior Cup by a score line of 17-7.
A huge crowd was in attendance to watch Ballymoney, looking to bounce back from last week’s reverse to Grosvenor in the league .Daniel Ramage returned to the starting line up at No 8, with Rory Strang also coming in at out half and Jonny Linton replacing the injured Michael Armstrong on the wing.
Ballymoney started the game at a high intensity, driven on by reports in rugby circles that this would be a one sided contest in favour of the visitors, but unfortunately gave away a penalty due to over eagerness at the breakdown and within 5 minutes were 3-0 down as the Armagh out half duly slotted over the penalty. This soon became 6-0 as again a misdemeanour against the Toon led to another penalty being dispatched by the Armagh kicker.
Ballymoney started to get their act in gear and were dominating the scrum, with the front row of Blair, Irvine & Brown causing havoc against their opposite numbers .Ramage & McFetridge were carrying hard into opposition territory but dogged Armagh defence kept Ballymoney at bay.
The toon were soon to take the lead with wave after wave of attack in the Armagh 22, the home side’s ball retention was excellent with Martin Irwin crashing over the line and Cleland added the conversion , giving Ballymoney a deserved 7-6 lead .
Armagh came back hard at Ballymoney and unfortunately as the half was closing, James Bleakly was yellow carded after Ballymoney had given away needless penalties.
Armagh made the numerical advantage pay off as they scored a try on the stroke of half time, 11-7 to the visitors.
The second half started much the same as the first, with both sides playing good rugby and both defences working hard. Ballymoney had the lion’s share of possession but resolute defending from the visitors kept them at bay .Ballymoney were further points down when yet another penalty was converted by the Armagh kicker.
In the final 20, the toon pressed hard to get a score and after being awarded a penalty, kicked to the corner .The resulting line out and caught and driven forward, deep into the 22, as Ballymoney got closer and closer to the line with wave after wave of forward carries, it seemed to be only a matter of time before a try but unfortunately the ball was knocked on just 2 yards from the line and from the resulting scrum the relieved Armagh out half cleared the danger.
As time ran on, Irwin broke through the line and only a last dash tackle stopped him from kicking through to unleash Pattison on the wing.
Armagh knew the game was almost over and retained the ball well from a lineout as they kept possession to run the clock down,and in a last dash attempt to get the ball , the ref penalised the home side ,giving Armagh another 3 points with the last kick of the game ,final score 17-7 and progressing to the final where they’ll meet Ballynahinch at Ravenhill.
After the game, Ballymoney coach Jonny Hanna was obviously disappointed with the result but delighted with the team’s performance.
“We knew today that we’d be up against it as Armagh 2S are one of the top sides in Conference 1 but they knew today that they were in a proper battle. Our guys from 1-20 showed great desire and hunger but I felt that we just didn’t get the rub of the green that sometimes you need in games like this .Our pack dominated theirs but unfortunately it was the penalties conceded that cost us .
We have come a long way from last season and this is down to the hard work that is put in on the training ground and we hope to bounce back from this when we travel to PSNI next Saturday.
Many thanks to all who came and supported us today and to the mini section for the guard of honour before kick-off.