Toon win away at Banbridge

Report

On Saturday, JKC sponsored Ballymoney 1st XV made the long journey to play Banbridge 2nd XV in a conference league fixture.
Ballymoney made a few changes for last week’s emphatic win over Lisburn in the league with Timmy Woods making his first appearance of the season in the back row and James Cleland replacing Chris Watson and Nigel Nevin coming in for the injured Thomas Hunter
Ballymoney kicked off in torrential rain and were soon on the attack,prop Adam Smith broke through a mix up in the home defence and was stopped yards from the line , the ball was moved wide left but the referee adjudged the ball to be held up over the line .Ballymoney were penalised at the resulting scrum and Bridge cleared the danger .
Banbridge scored soon afterward, a missed tackle in midfield and the home winger ran in to opening the scoring, conversion added 7-0 home side.
Within minutes Ballymoney were on level terms following a try from Danny Platt and John Hyndman , starting at fullback , soon added a second try , both converted by John .Ballymoney had the lion’s share of the possession , however came up short on various occasions due to a combination of dropped balls or being turned over inside the home 22.There were no further scores so the half finished 14-7 to the Toon .
With 5 minutes on the clock in the second half, the Bann scrum half suffered a serious hip injury and had to be stretchered off the field. The game restarted and Ballymoney continued to dominate up front and looked dangerous when the ball was moved to the backs .Timmy Woods scored ,quickly followed with a great try following a great pass by Dan Ramage , allowing the winger to burst through to touch down in the corner .
As the home team started to tire, The Toon piled on more pressure and further tries from Matthew Blair and the superb Danny Platt left Ballymoney with a very impressive 38-7 win.
After the game, Jonny Hanna said, “Today I felt we were very impressive today despite the inclement weather making handling very difficult .Timmy Woods made a fantastic debut and Danny Platt again was immense and a special mention must go to big Jack Anderson making his 1st xv debut. The intensity of our forward play eventually wore the home team down and won comfortably .We made a few changes in the back line today and I felt we looked dangerous every time we got the ball. The intensity at training over the past few weeks has definitely improved our game but we must continue to do so. We have a free week next Saturday before two home games against Limavady and Randalstown .
It was a great day for our 2nd XV too as they defeated a strong Ballynahinch side in the Crawford Cup .There is a lot of competition for places this season and it is a good headache to have!
Unfortunately the Banbridge scrum half suffered a serious injury during the game and we all wish him a speedy recovery “.