JKC/Causeway Geotech sponsored Ballymoney made the journey to Pollock Park to take on a Lurgan side keen to build on their victory at Kilraughts Road in the first half of the season.

With Daniel Ramage unavailable, Tom Lowry came into the second row with young Zach Dunn starting in the front row. Owen Boyd returned to the back line with Stephen McCamphill again starting at scrum half.

On a cold February afternoon, the pitch was in perfect condition; Ballymoney played into a slight breeze first half and within several minutes were 3-0 down after being penalised at the breakdown. Lurgan doubled their lead with another penalty after 10 before stretching their lead further with a converted try on 15 minutes with the visitors having virtually no possession during the opening exchanges.

Ballymoney started to press after this and a Paddy Carson penalty on 20 minutes gave the Toon their first points of the afternoon. Soon after this a clearance from Lurgan inside their 22 was gathered by Marty Irwin who hoisted a high ball into the air, gathered by Owen Boyd who broke the line before feeding the supporting Irwin who scored the try, converted by Paddy Carson, to narrow the margin to 13-10.

The home defence managed the Ballymoney attack well and a penalty conceded by the Toon on the half way gave Lurgan the chance to kick into the corner and from the resulting lineout drove the Money pack and scored their second try.

Just before the break the home side further stretched their lead when constant pressure on the Money line saw the pack smash over and with the conversion, Lurgan deservedly led at the break by 25-10.

In a second half that saw Ballymoney have plenty of possession, the home defence marshalled the Toon too well as the attack was very one dimensional and with 10 minutes remaining on the clock, a further Lurgan score took any chance of the Toon getting anything away from them and secured the bonus point win. In the last 5 a nice break by Carson saw him offload to the supporting Curtis Pollock who scored and took it to 32-12 but it was too little too late as Lurgan secured a well deserved victory.

“Very disappointing result today“ said manager Chris McIlmoyle. “Lurgan fully deserved the win as the were hungrier than us. First 15 minutes we hardly had any ball which gave them the chance to build a strong lead. We rallied midway through the half but we were very one dimensional making it easy to defend against, we didn’t use the wide channels anywhere near enough. We simply can’t beat well-drilled sides like this by trying to punch holes through them. We have Cooke at home on Saturday so we will dust ourselves off, train hard and go again next week.”