Banbridge Rugby Club - Northern Ireland

The Rifle Park side duly picked up the win expected against a team sitting second from bottom of Division Three. But the fluency and control which had been increasingly evident in their last two outings against Wanderers and Sunday's Well was, perhaps understandably, missing.

Ultimately they came to rely on the power of the pack to see them through against a home side which lacked nothing in terms of commitment and aggression.

The opening exchanges were marked by a flurry of penalties and after 12 minutes play out-half Marty Coll had Navan 6-3 ahead, with his opposite number Robin Thompson getting Bann off the mark.

With a gusting wind and greasy surface to contend with, both sides were struggling to find coherency. Thompson's tidy kick then set up good field position for the visitors and the Bann scrum began to test the opposition close to the home line.

The Navan scrum was pushed back over their own line and Bann flanker Colin Bickerstaff fell on the ball to claim the try which his No 10 converted.

Two yellow cards then combined to put Bann under unnecessary pressure. Brian Hanna may have felt harshly treated when he was penalised for not getting back on-side at a ruck at a speed to satisfy the match officials. And before he could return to the action he was joined on the sideline by Simon McKinstry, deemed to have taken a player out off the ball.

The thirteen dug deep to deny Navan a score their pressure might have deserved and on Hanna's return to the fray Bann resumed on the attack. With exchanges heating up it was Navan's turn to incur the referee's wrath, with centre Johnny Davis taking a 10 minute break after an unwarranted attack on Bann winger Stephen Cowan.

Winger Ashley Finlay put in a darting run to take play inside the Navan "22" and Bickerstaff's storming gallop was halted just short of the try line. The subsequent scrum collapsed and before it was re-set McKinstry made a timely return to the fray. When the set piece again hit the deck with Navan in reverse gear, the referee had no hesitation in awarding Bann a penalty try, with Thompson's conversion signalling the end of the half.

With the wind in their faces after the break Bann's first foray into the home "22" was delayed until the 55th minute, by which time the home side had failed to take advantage of two long-range penalty opportunities. Thompson made no mistake with his penalty chance from the "22" to take his side 6-20 clear with 20 minutes remaining.

Navan did enjoy spells of pressure in the last quarter of the game but their attack lacked the cutting edge to break down a determined Bann defence in which hooker Jonny Murphy and prop Michael Cromie did some particularly effective work at the breakdown.

Neither, however, did Bann look like picking up the two additional tries needed to earn a bonus point and the game petered out, with Coll picking up a yellow card late in the game for a technical offence.

Bann will be glad to have that rusty performance behind them and Saturday's Ulster League game at home to Instonians should provide further effective preparation in advance of the challenging visit of Greystones the following week.