Banbridge Rugby Club - Northern Ireland

Five minutes later, and with Instonians now facing a determined visiting team, Bann crossed for a try. Again it was the forwards who gained momentum, and when the ball was spun to centre Will Taylor, he showed great strength in dragging the defenders with him over the line from 10 metres out.

Although Ferris was unlucky with the conversion from wide, he added to his tally five minutes later with a well struck penalty when Instonians were again caught infringing in their efforts to stop the dominant Bann forwards.

With Bann not able to get out of their "22" from the kick off, they were disappointed in conceding a penalty which reduced their lead to 11-10. The half ended with Bann peppering the home try line with drives, but solid defence enabled the hosts to hold out.

Instonians opened the second half with more urgency as they sought to stamp their mark on home territory. This they achieved by scoring a try and a penalty in the first 5 minutes to go 20-11 up.

Bann responded immediately to this with another great penalty by Ferris to reduce the deficit to six points but Instonians replied 10 minutes later with another try. With the score at 27-14, Bann were still well aware that they had plenty up their sleeve to retrieve the game, and with Ferris once again adding three points from the restart, things were looking up. However, a 20 minute period of no scoring seemed ominous for Bann, especially when Inst again exploited defensive inexperience to go 32-17 up with 7 minutes remaining.

The re-start saw Bann's aggression for a consolation try win them turnover ball, and when Ferris received the ball, a deft kick through the defence had Geoff Thompson streaking through for the touchdown. The conversion by Ferris and a check of the scoreboard made them realise a win was achievable. Within two minutes Bann were just five points adrift when Ferris once again converted from 40 metres.

The grandstand finish was on, and when Bann recycled the ball to good effect to move deep into the Inst half, the chance was there. Alas, a two man overlap on the right wing was not seen and the defence swallowed up Bann's attack down the other flank. Instonians were able to see out the remaining minute as Bann conceded penalties in their eagerness to win.

Although Bann were hugely disappointed not to have won, they can take credit for a great performance from a group of players who came into the team and performed admirably even though they had never played with each other before, and some played way out of position.

Players to note were John Ferris at out half for his strong running and kicking from hand and off the tee, Paul Ross for his usual consistency in the forwards, but Man of the Match went to Captain Geoff Thompson for his overall running and tackling.