Ballymoney 2s too much for QUB

Queen's 3rd XV - 19 - 40 Ballymoney 2nd XV

On a dry but windy day at the Dub, two sides took the field looking to finish the year in style.

From the start, the students showed their intentions, moving the ball wide at every opportunity, and using the wind advantage to play deep in the Ballymoney half.

It was loose clearance from a stolen lineout that led to the first try for the home side after just four minutes - the winger quickly moving in field and linking up with the back line, who worked through hands to score in the corner.

And the students pressed their advantage shortly afterwards, with a good carry and offload putting a man clear, who used his pacy support runner to beat the cover defence. 12-0 after 20 minutes.

But that scoreline was not reflecting the general play, with the visitors completely dominating all of the set pieces - dropped balls in contact and a few missed opportunities were left behind.

After half an hour, and following a spell of sustained pressure, the Toon men finally got the breakthrough, with some strong carrying up from especially from Beattie and McAuley gaining some impetus for Millar and Mulholland to get their hands free and offload. Several phases of recycled ball eventually drew in enough defenders for the back line to move through hands and put Brown in on the corner flag, coming off his wing to make the extra man count. Watson converted a fine effort from the touchline into the wind for 12-7.

But just before half time the students struck again - again working through their left hand side, getting an offload to the inside support runner who outpaced the turning defenders and had another support runner to beat the fullback and dot down. With the conversion good it was 19-7 to QUB at the half.

Some stern words from co-captain Linton at half time led to a tighter performance in the second half. The dominance in the set piece had to continue, but that would not be enough against a well drilled home defensive line.

With the wind now in Ballymoney's favour, and the set piece going one way, the students found it hard to gain any territory in the second half.

But eventually a gap appeared in their defense, with Gilkinson taking a clearance kick around the half way line and weaving his way into the 22. A couple of good carries from the forwards and Gilkinson again popped up on the right wing to power his way over for a try. With Watson again landing a good conversion from out wide, the score closed to 19-14 after 55 minutes.

In the final quarter Ballymoney's constant dominance in the scrum finally started to pay dividends, and the home side's enthusiastic defending started to creak. on 65 minutes, with the scrum moving forwards rapidly from 10m out, the ball popped out for George McAuley to pounce and squeeze over for the score that put the Toon ahead for the first time.

Shortly afterwards, a penalty try from another close range scrum opened the gap to 28-19, and the contest was all but over, with the bonus point secured.

In the last 10 minutes a set of tight forward carries from a lineout led to Harry Orr squeezing over in the corner for a try for 33-19.

And the final act of the game was for Peter Dunlop to split the opposition centres like Moses and the Red Sea to canter in under the posts, allowing Watson a simple conversion for a 40-19 win.

For the Toon this was a pleasing win for the 2nd XV to close out the year, and especially turning around a first half deficit into a dominant second half display. Next up will be Bangor, visiting Kilraughts Road on the 6th of January.