Banbridge Rugby Club - Northern Ireland

Bann opened the scoring on five minutes when No 8 Ryan Patterson picked up the ball from a solid scrum and fed Craig Mulholland who put winger Packie Downey in for a try. The second try came courtesy of an advantage being played by the referee, and William Taylor was able to collect and then pass for Patterson to ground.

A further five minutes later, and Mulholland put his name to a try when his initial kick through was mis-fielded by the Newry defence. Bann were able to re-cycle the ball quickly for the scrum-half to finish.

Newry then produced a poor re-start kick and this gave Bann the impetus as they quickly moved the ball right and then left. John Ferris fed the ball through centres Owen Gallagher and Taylor before Patterson raced in from the "22" through the visitors' defence for his second try.

The next period of play belonged to hooker Paul Ross, who was able to claim a well deserved hat-trick before the break. The first came when Bann got the scrum after another poor Newry re-start. Mulholland made a break deep into the "22". Bryan Curran was quickly in support to allow quick recycling of the ball for Ross to touch down. His second came when Downey tidied up more Newry mis-fielding before finding Ross with the scoring pass. He then completed his hat-trick by showing strength to touch down at the posts.

The second period started with Bann playing very individual rugby, and this resulted in them barely getting out of their own half for 25 minutes. Although it had worked in the first half to produce the scores, it was now proving to be acting against them.

With 15 minutes to go however, Bann were able to score again. The first try saw Ryan Patterson match Ross's hat-trick by crossing for Bann's eighth try. Winger Jordan Weir was then on hand to collect a beautiful pass from Ferris after the out-half had opened the Newry defence with a great break. Mulholland then scored the tenth and final try when he showed great footwork to make a break and score. Clark McAllister's five conversions made up the final tally.

Athough Bann scored ten tries for the second week in a row, there was a lack of teamwork which, if not corrected, could be exposed this Saturday when they travel to play pace-setters Ballymena in the Second XV League.