Toon Leapfrog Lurgan to strengthen playoff hopes

On a beautiful spring afternoon , The JKC Causeway Geotech sponsored Ballymoney 1st XV welcomed play off rivals Lurgan to a sun drenched Kilraughts Road where a large support had gathered in the hope that they would see the home side seal a win as defeat would scupper the chance to finish in the top four and deny a league playoff place .
The Toon welcomed back Jason Clyde and Joel Heggarty into the front row , Jordan Munnis at no 8 and John Laughlin at fullback .
Before the kickoff , there was a minutes silence in memory of Bertie Watson , a regular attendee at Kilraughts Road and father of David & Chris Watson , who had sadly passed away last weekend .
Ballymoney kicked off playing towards the clubhouse and immediately starting attacking the Lurgan line .Lurgan absorbed the early pressure and started to press themselves . This led to a penalty conceded where they opted to kick , penalty successful , 3-0 Lurgan .
Ballymoney hit back in the tenth minute , pressure was put on a Lurgan lineout which resulted in a toon scrum , ball hit up the middle by Dennis Posternak and was recycled out to Munnis , who drew in the defender and with the deftest of passes put Joel Heggarty through the gap to gallop in below the posts .Laughlin converted , Ballymoney lead 7-3.
Straight from the restart , a monster kick from Marty Irwin gave Lurgan a lineout just outside their 22 .A fantastic steal from Marcel Nygutin gave the possession back to the home side and after Irwin & Marcel smashed deep into the 22 , the ball was moved out to centre Chris Watson who battered his way over the line to double the toon advantage with Laughlin again adding the conversion .
With the scrum and lineout functioning well , the Toon took further advantage on twenty minutes when a clearance kick went into the away 22 , and with the new 50/22 rule , Ballymoney had the throw into the lineout , again Marcel took the ball and the pack mauled towards the line , scrumhalf Steele spotted a gap in the Lurgan defence and darted through to score the try , again converted by Laughlin , 21-3.
On the half hour mark , Lurgan were awarded a penalty which the opted to kick ,reducing the lead to 21-6 .
The final play of the half saw Marty Irwin score the bonus point try , a penalty kicked into the 22 , the ball was hit up numerous times before Irwin pounced to cross the whitewash , conversion narrowly missed . Half time Ballymoney 26-6 .
Ballymoney were determined not to lift the foot off the gas in the second half which they did in their previous game away to Larne however in the opening minutes Lugan scored their first try , a catch and drive line out was moved out wide and the winger cut in to score below the posts.
Ballymoney hit straight back and after a series of penalties made their way into the Lurgan 22 where they were awarded another penalty where they opted to take the scrum . A big scrum saw Steele dart and feed Irwin who burst through scoring his second of the afternoon .Conversion missed , 31-13.
Lurgan pushed hard to get back into the game but the Ballymoney men stood firm until the final minutes when Lurgan scored a consolation try which they converted leaving the final score 31-20 with the Toon men moving ahead of Lurgan in the table with 2 games to go .
“This was a big win for the home men who deserved the win and were clinical in attack and strong in defence with a lot of big performances . Nygutin and McKeeman were fantastic in the lineout and the scrums were a vast improvement on our last outing “ commented Marty Irwin after the game .” It was important to win today to keep our season alive and we now look forward to travelling to Lisburn who will be scrapping hard to get points in their bid to stay up . Our destiny is in our own hands and a lot of hard work will go in this week to prepare for this game .
A big thanks to the support who were out in force to support us yet again .”