Toon triumph v Lisburn

The Geotech and JKC BMW sponsored Ballymoney 1st XV hosted Lisburn 1st XV in league action at Kilraughts road. In a fast paced game Ballymoney earned a bonus point, winning 35-17.
Lisburn arrived on positive form after beating Academy the previous week. Ballymoney looked to improve after a week with no fixture after their 12-12 draw away to Lurgan. Ballymoney were without Martin Irwin in the backline and John Gilkinson who recently returned to the club after a few seasons away, had to withdraw in the morning due to illness. This meant Andy Young started on the wing. In the forwards the only changes saw the return of Peter Irvine to hooker and after impressing off the bench against Lurgan Michael Allan started at openside in place of the unavailable Garvin Bellingham.
Lisburn regained their kick off and put early pressure on the Ballymoney team with a number of phases inside the Ballymoney half, however the Toon defence resulted in a turnover and pressure was released. From a lineout Lisburn attacked again via their forwards but again the home defence stood firm.
The breakthrough in the game came on the 10minute mark when Michael Allan intercepted a pass from the scrum half on half way to make a great solo run to the Lisburn 22. He offloaded to the prop Matthew Blair who worked hard to support and his thundering run took the ball close to the try line. Another strong carry by Daniel Ramage released quick ball to scrum half Matthew Steele and the back line shifted it wide to outhalf John Hyndman and his wide pass created space for Thomas Hunter who had the pace to beat his opposite man and crash over the line. Rory Strang added the extra points to open the score 7-0
The second try came only a few minutes later when the Ballymoney front row of John McFetridge, Peter Irvine and Matthew Blair caused problems for the visitors and the Toon number 8 Jordan Munnis was able to capitalise on a scrum against the head and break on the blind side. An excellent kick through by centre Thomas Hunter was chased by himself and Andy Young. The pressure from the chase resulted in a knock on and an attacking platform on the 22 metre line.
Again a good platform from the scrum allowed centre John Laughlin to crash the ball up and make meters. A carry from Platt took the play 10 meters out, where scrum half Steele found the run of Daniel Ramage who ran through the defensive line untouched to score below the posts. Rory Strang put over the kick to extend the lead to 14-0.
Lisburn did break into the Toon half but again the home defence stood firm but Lisburn slotted over a penalty from 30metres out to get them on the score board at 14-3.
Ballymoney added another try after a strong run by Jordan Munnis was followed up by some good passing between the forward and backs to take the play into the Lisburn 22. A penalty was quickly taken by scrum half Matthew Steele who found the charging Munnis. The ruck was recycled quickly and the ball moved this time to John McFetridge on the charge who wasn’t going to be stopped from a few metres out and he barged over to score. Once more Rory Strang slotted over to extend the lead to 21-3.
The last play of the 1st half was to be Lisburn’s. From bit of a scrappy Lisburn lineout the ball was carried forward before a loose ball was gathered by the impressive Lisburn wing who sprinted through a gap in the defence and evaded the cover defence to score from 25 metres out. The kick was good and narrowed the lead at half time to 21-10.

It wasn’t long into the second half that Ballymoney got the bonus point. The forwards carried hard from a lineout and the attacking awareness of outhalf John Hyndman spotted the visitors winger out of position and put in a cross-field kick which was gathered by Ballymoney winger Matthew Bell who showed great skill to offload to the supporting Rory Strang to jog in under the posts for the bonus point. Rory converted his own try to extend the lead to 28-10.
The 5th try came after an excellent 60 metre kick from outhalf John Hyndman which resulted in a Lisburn lineout 10metres from their own line. Although they took the lineout great work from second rows Danny Platt and Ashely Tweed managed to turn the maul over and win the ruck. The ball was taken forward by centre John Laughlin and back rower Daniel Ramage before Captain and scrum half Matthew Steele spotted a gap to dart over from close range to score the try. Once more Rory Strang was successful to bring the score to 35-10
Lisburn never gave up and pushed hard for a try in the final few minutes. Ballymoney tried to run a ball out of their 22 but knocked on in the tackle and Lisburn reacted well to off load the ball and created a gap for their centre to cross over below the posts. The try converted and the final whistle blew to end the game at 35-17.
Man of the Match: Daniel Ramage
Team: M.Blair, P. Irvine, J. McFetridge, A. Tweed, D. Platt, D. Ramage, M. Allan, J. Munnis, M. Steele, J. Hyndman, M. Bell, J. Laughlin, T. Hunter, A. Young, R. Strang, J. Dowey, J. Cleland.
Manager Comments: After the game Team Manager Chris McIlmoye commented, “All the team played well again as a unit. There was no real weakness in the side as we looked complete and that was with a few changes. We have a great squad at the moment and competition for places is high. The best things is that the vast, vast majority of players have all came up through local schools or our own mini or youth section. The team spirit is good and this is the same through all the club with 4 teams being selected for a number of weeks in a row. We are a club in unity and you can see that on recent match days with a number of the mini section helping run the lines etc.
The forwards carried hard again with every one of them to the fore. On top of that the back line came up with 3 of the try’s and Rory Strang had a 100% day with the boot and a personal tally of 15 points. We have a week off next week and then we welcome lead leaders Limavady to the Kilraughts Road. Limavady are on great form and the only unbeaten team in the league so we will look forward to the test and know we need to be at our best to get something.
I would like to thank all the support so far this year and encourage everyone out on Saturday fortnight when we entertain Limavady RFC.