4 try win v Omagh

On a wet December afternoon, JKC sponsored Ballymoney returned to action after a fortnight’s break. Omagh 2nd xv were the visitors to Kilraughts Road in the Conference League looking to avenge their Junior Cup defeat earlier in the season.
With several injuries and unavailibilities , it gave the coaching team the chance to make a few changes , Club captain John ‘Tadhg’ McFetridge started at tight head with Peter Irvine making a welcome return at hooker. Jack Hyndman made his 1st XV debut in the second row with his brother John returning at full back. Jack Anderson joined Matthew Blair on the bench.
Omagh started strongly keeping possession fairly well but the home defence kept them at bay without too much trouble ,after several phases they kicked deep into the home 22 where John Hyndman gathered and attacked up the left touchline beating 3 tackles before offloading to Marty Irwin who sprinted to the corner to open the scoring , conversion missed 5-0 Ballymoney ,
Omagh hit back with a penalty from just inside the Toon half, taking the score to 5-3.
From the restart Ballymoney turned the ball over and a line break from Chris Watson gave him the space to offload to John McFetridge to crash over the line with John Hyndman adding the conversion gave Ballymoney a 12-3 lead .A further Omagh penalty left the score 12-6 at the break .
The second half started with Ballymoney attacking the clubhouse end, a clever break from James Cleland and a switch move with Martin Irwin broke the line allowing him to cross the whitewash for the second time .Conversion added, 19-6
Ballymoney took the foot off the gas allowing Omagh back into the game midway through the second half when from a lineout midway inside the Toon 22 they won the ball and drove the home pack over the line, taking the score to 19-11.
Ballymoney hit back and pressed deep into the opponent’s territory and showed great patience as they built numerous phases before moving wide to wing Matty Bell who finished with a well-deserved try, securing the bonus point.

After the game, Jonny Hanna said, “It was good to get back to action after a few down weeks and I thought we played well against a well drilled Omagh side. Big John Mcfetridge had an excellent game playing at prop for the first time and it was great to have Peter Irvine back too. Although Omagh had a lot of possession, our defence was well drilled and we dealt with their attack fairly well. Jack Hyndman had a tremendous debut in the second row and is definitely a great asset to have.
Next week we are back to league action with a tricky away trip to Clogher Valley and we will need to put a big weeks training in to prepare for the game.
There is a bus travelling to the game and there are seats available, contact Chris McIlmoyle to book a seat .”