Ballymoney 3s overcome Limavady 3s under the floodlights

Ballymoney 3XV looked to continue their winning form this week against Limavady, with a planned game under the new lights at Kilraughts Road. The Toon men kicked off, playing away from the clubhouse into wind. From the kick-off Limavady recycled the ball and kicked Ballymoney back deep into the 22. Good scrabble allowed the Toon to set up an exit only for Logan McIntyre, just back from injury, to take an unfortunate awkward hit resulting in a serious injury. This brought the game to an immediate stop, while the physio’s looked after Logan who had a suspected broken leg. The game stopped for over 30mins, before it was agreed by both captains and the referee to move the match to our training pitch, playing a reduced time of 30mins each way.

From the restart it was Limavady who settled the earliest, going through the phases and putting Ballymoney under pressure on their own line. From one such play, Ruairi Hawthorne found himself on the wrong side of the ruck killing the ball. The ref opted for a penalty for Limavady and yellow for Ruairi. From the resulting penalty, Limavady crashed over to score the opening try and convert to lead 7 – 0. Too many mistakes and dropped balls from the men in blue often let Limavady off the hook. This was story of the 1st half, hard work got the Toon men into score positions, only to undone with errors, allowing Limavady to relieve the pressure by kicking the ball back down the park. Half time score 7 – 0 to Limavady.

Ballymoney regrouped at half-time, with both Captain and vice-captain saying “we just need to relax and stop trying to force the issue, we have skills to win, and our defence has been excellent”. Right from receiving the kick-off Ballymoney forced Limavady back into their own half where they remained for most of second half. Great defence from Limavady, some maybe illegal, kept the Toon men out, until Adam Hodges cut a lovely line of Lewis Henry to burst through the 1st line of defence and then raced clear to score below the posts. Converted by David Hodges score now 7-7.

It wasn’t long until Limavady found themselves on the wrong side of law, penalty to Ballymoney, up stepped David Hodges score now 10 – 7 to Ballymoney. The Toon men plugged away, but despite a 2nd try being disallowed by Adam Hodges, the score ended 10 – 7 to Ballymoney. Another win, despite the injury and reduced game time, the Toon men march on.

We all wish Logan a speedy recovery from a torn ligament in his ankle.