Banbridge Rugby Club - Northern Ireland

That was anything but the case as the city side proved to be a well-organised outfit with a solid defence and pace aplenty in the threequarters, leaving Bann to fall back on the trusty boot of full-back Mark Doherty for their narrow win.

An early break from scrum-half Andy Cowan almost brought the visitors a try, with the final pass going to ground a few metres short of the line. But that opening flurry was as close to registering a try as Bann got during the opening 40 minutes as Grosvenor took advantage of the wind and slope to keep the Rifle Park side pinned for long periods in their own half.

However the Bann defensive work proved good enough to keep the scoreline blank as half-time approached. A fine kick from out-half Francois Viljoen took play deep inside the Grosvenor "22" for a defensive lineout. Bann managed to get the ball back on their side, albeit untidily, but as Grosvenor piled through on the ruck the referee signalled for a penalty offence and Doherty's kick split the uprights to give his side a narrow interval lead.

No 8 Sam Boyd broke off from a scrum at the start of the second half to burst through the first-line Grosvenor defence and make 40 metres before being hauled down. Again Grosvenor infringed at the ruck but this time Doherty's penalty kick veered wide of the posts.

Six minutes into the second period Doherty carved open the Grosvenor defence with a 40 metre run, but as the last defender closed in he was unable to get his pass away to supporting replacement winger Gary McKibben.

Ten minutes later the full-back doubled his own and his side's tally with a penalty converted from 38 metres range after the opposition had been penalised for holding on at a ruck.

Grosvenor had a chance to halve the deficit in the 64th minute but the kick from scrum-half Richard Henning, a graduate of Bann's youth teams, was off-target.

Still Grosvenor were taking every opportunity to run ball back at the Bann lines and when they won another kickable penalty they opted to kick for the 5-metre lineout. However their lineout had struggled to win quality ball throughout and Bann were able to defend and ultimately clear the danger.

With the rain becoming heavier both sides were making handling errors and as the quality of the play deteriorated Bann were able to see out the time remaining without further threat to their line.

This was a very patchy display by a Bann side which just the night before had picked up the Janssen Team-of-the-Year Cup at the club's annual awards night.

They never really developed the fluency which has been a feature of their play this season and were guilty of making too many bad decisions. Sam Boyd was the coaches' man-of-the-match thanks to several storming runs, but too many of his team-mates put on below par displays.

Dungannon Fourths emerged as winners from their semi-final against Omagh Thirds on a 3-0 scoreline and if Bann are to bring home the trophy they will have to show a marked improvement on Saturday's performance. They have shown themselves this season to be capable of playing sublime rugby - a return to that standard should see them lift the cup.

The final will be played at Chambers Park, Portadown on Saturday 14th May, kicking off at 1pm.