Tight game good result

On Saturday the U13’s made the journey to Dungannon. With some regular players missing, Ballymoney took an inexperienced side with no fewer than five of the travelling dozen making their U13 debuts. With the journey still in their legs Ballymoney were caught cold and found themselves 15-0 down within the first 10 mins. This was the wake up call Ballymoney needed and with some great play by the forwards good quick ball allowed L Culbertson to feed his backs and a strong run by J Doak saw him crash over the line for the first Ballymoney try. Dungannon responded by scoring a very soft try, poor tackling from Ballymoney allowed them to score under the posts for a converted try. Half Time 22-5. After a strong team talk Ballymoney were a changed side in the 2nd half, the forwards led from the front with A Donnelly and A Tweed putting in great tackles and cleaning up in the rucks and mauls. This platform allowed L Culbertson to pick up from a ruck bump off a couple of tacklers to break their back line even finding time for a wee hitch kick to score a try which he converted himself.22-12. From the restart out half R Ferris gathered the kick and ran from his own 22 out stripping the entire Dungannon back line to score another converted try. 22-19.Ballymoney were cruising and almost an exact replay saw J Doak show everyone that not only a good tackler he can run as well,sprinting the long way round, touching down for his second and Ballymoney’s 4th try.L Culbertson converted.22-26. J Doak completed his hat-trick of tries with another blistering run to touch down and the reliable boot of L Culbertson slotted over.22-33.This started a Dungannon revival and they scored 3 unanswered tries to take the lead.37-33.With seconds left on the clock a good scrum on their own 22 from the “toon”, scrum half L Culbertson picked from the base of the scrum went down the blind side and outpaced their winger to score his second and bring his personal tally to 22 points.The conversion was missed and the refs whistle went for full time. The ref was unsure of the full time score so he opted for the draw but after some tallying on the bus home it became clear Ballymoney took the win by one point.37-38. Special mention goes to Brandon Boyd for his good solid tackling and Rhys Holmes for his running both with ball and support play. Man of the Match – Joint Lee Culbertson and Jack Doak.
Match report provided from Stephen Tweed.