Derby Delight For Duke's Thirds Share
Although very cold, the weather was otherwise nearly perfect for a fast and open game of rugby. However, with the usual intensity between Banbridge and Dromore sides evident, both teams started cautiously and kept the ball tight. Although Bann camped in the Dromore "22" for the first 10 minutes, it was Dromore who opened the scoring with a penalty, won after a rare incursion into the Banbridge half. This brought an immediate response from Bann and although Doherty was wide with his first penalty attempt, he nailed the second and the scores were level. Dromore lost their prop due to a knee injury half way through the first half. Not only did this reduce Dromore to 14 men but it resulted in uncontested scrums. This was unfortunate for Bann as they had dominated the scrum through their front row of Gareth Jelly, Ryan Ringland and Andy Wilson. Bann continued their attack and were awarded another penalty which Doherty again converted, to leave the half time score 6-3 to Bann. The second half started more brightly with Bann trying to move the ball wide at every opportunity. With great work by Stevie Nelson and Johnny Martin close to the Dromore line, Bann won some great ball which Andy Cowan moved wide to Colin Hamilton who broke through from centre to score. Doherty again added the extras to make it 13-3. Now Bann were attacking at will from everywhere on the park. The hard working back row of Andrew Craig, Sam Boyd and Bryan Curran kept the continuity between backs and forwards, and when Johnny Clarke made a great break, Doherty was on hand to take the pass and cross for Bann's second try. He then converted his own try to leave the score a comfortable 20-3 to the home side. Unfortunately, Bann were too comfortable with the scoreline, and in a ten minute period of determined play, the visitors added two tries and one conversion to their tally to reduce the deficit to 23-15. Thankfully this woke the home team up and after a period of great attacking play, Clarke broke through a rolling maul and was only stopped on the Dromore line. Nelson was on hand at the ensuing ruck to pick up and drive over the line for Bann's third and final try. Doherty again added the conversion to conclude the scoring. This was a good result for Bann, although they made heavy work of it with some poor decision making. Captain Andy Craig worked tirelessly throughout the game and was Team Manager Andy Duke's man-of-the-match. The Thirds travel to Bangor next weekend to continue their league campaign.