Banbridge Rugby Club - Northern Ireland

Bann chose to play into the wind in the first half and straight from the kick-off, centre Gary McKibben made a tremendous break, splitting the ‘Hinch defence wide open. He ran right to the opposition "22" where he linked with winger Peter Irvine who touched down under the posts. Unfortunately Bann's pace had caught the referee by surprise at the other end of the pitch, from where he decided the pass was forward and disallowed the try.

Bann continued to pressurise ‘Hinch but could not put points on the board, with Mark Doherty missing narrowly from a couple of penalty attempts. The game was fairly even at set piece time but ‘Hinch carried the ball more and started to find a few gaps in the hard-working Bann defence. By half time Ballynahinch had scored two tries, converting one of them, to go
12-0 ahead.

In the second half, with the wind having dropped considerably, Bann threw everything at ‘Hinch. It wasn't long until Peter Irvine crossed the line for a great score that Doherty converted, and Bann were right back in the game.

Having opted not to kick a number of very kickable penalties, Bann eventually handed Doherty the ball and he duly converted the penalty to leave the score 12-10.

The last 10 minutes saw both teams go for the win. Bann really should have played the corners and kept ‘Hinch pinned back in their own 22, but continued to try to run the ball from deep and lose possession.
Having given away a series of penalties and found themselves defending a five metre lineout, Bann managed to turn over the ball on their own line. An unfortunate mix up whilst trying to clear the lines resulted in ‘Hinch pouncing on a loose ball under the posts and securing another seven points.

With the score at 19-10, Bann's determined efforts to haul back the deficit in the five minutes remaining were unsuccessful.

Overall, Bann could, and probably should have won this game against a very strong Ballynahinch team. A special mention should go to hooker Ryan Ringland, who stepped in at the last minute and played a great game. Matthew Bird yet again played tremendously, and notched up another "man of the match" performance.

This week it's back to league rugby, with CIYMS Seconds due at Rifle Park. Bann still top the league and only CIYMS and Dungannon are in a position to knock them off the top. Saturday's game is therefore a very big one on the path to league honours.