Banbridge Rugby Club - Northern Ireland

Bann were keen to impress early on, and it was Alan Conn, returning from injury, who made the first surging run on the blind side from his own half to bring play deep into the visitors "22". From a solid scum the ball was moved left and then right, but the Derry defence initially held firm The pressure eventually told when Clark McAllister converted a penalty on six minutes.

The re-start saw Bann completely gift the visitors a try under the posts, when they sought to spread the ball after receiving the kick. The ball went loose in midfield, allowing Derry to collect and score for a 3-7 lead.

Bann remained focused and, spurred on by scrum half Andy Cowan, the forwards were edging the tussle both in the set pieces and the loose. It was from one such solid scrum on the half way line that No.8 Sam Boyd broke before feeding the backs, with winger John Porter coming onto the ball at pace to make the try line. McAllister`s conversion from out wide struck the upright, but Bann were now back in front at 8-7.

The next piece of action saw Bann's clever positional play put Derry on the back foot, with John Ferris and McAllister sending kicks into open space. Winger Chris Craig was also getting involved, both in defence and using his vision to put ball into good attacking positions.

From one of Ferris`s penalties kicked to touch, Bann controlled the drive. After a few phases of play, and despite good defending by Derry, prop Nelson Shanks barged over from close range. McAllister added the extras with a great conversion to move the score on to 15-7. Derry responded just before the break with a penalty to leave just five points separating the sides at the interval.

The second half began in spectacular fashion when John Porter carried over his first half form to score his second try. This time he received the ball out wide on the half-way line and showed blistering pace in squeezing through a gap on the touch-line to beat the first man. He then produced side-step after side-step to turn the numerous Derry defenders inside out before opening the gap to sprint in for a wonderful try, yet again converted by McAllister.

Derry came back at Bann and for prolonged periods pressed the home line, but it took 15 minutes to finally break the defence out wide for a converted try. Bann's response was to put enormous pressure on the visitors' line through the scrum, winning a pushover try 15 minutes from time with Cowan just edging out Boyd to the touchdown. McAllister once again converted to move the score to 29-17.

Still Derry were far from being a spent force, with another converted try again bringing them within five points of Bann's tally. The home team realised that they needed to shake off the Derry threat. After two attempts at a hat-trick by Porter, one off a great break by Geoff Thompson, they eventually got the killer try with 5 minutes remaining.

Derry were forced to concede penalty after penalty to the increasingly dominant Bann pack who elected for the scrum on each occasion. The defence managed to hold Bann out with a variety of infringements, but eventually the alertness of Cowan saw him receive a pop pass out of the base to jink round the blind side and touch down.

Given the disappointment of the previous week, this was a good confidence-instilling result and one that sees them retain their unbeaten Conference League record, although they know they should have put Derry ‘to rest' a lot earlier.

Players to stand out were the consistently impressive Porter and scrum-half Cowan, who each grabbed two tries, and back rowers Paul Ross and Sam Boyd. However the sheer work load and ground covered by flanker Bryan Curran earned him the ‘man-of-the-match' accolade.