Banbridge Rugby Club - Northern Ireland

With Donegal giving Bann the strong wind advantage from the kick off, the Rifle Park side was determined to make that count and after 10 minutes Craig Mulholland scored in the corner after receiving a ball from No8 Sam Boyd off the scrum. Three minutes later Andrews got his second, again powering his way through the defence from the "22" to score under the posts. The conversion moved the score on to 19-0.

On the 20 minute mark it was 26-0. This time it was Boyd who burst through and when his 25 metre run was held up short of the line, Bann controlled the drives for the consistent Andy Baird to get the points.

Five minutes later and it was back to the three quarters to score. Mulholland again broke on the blind side and timed his pass nicely to winger John Porter who was supporting at speed. With work still to do in rounding his opposite number, this he did with ease before touching down under the posts.

With the score at 33-0 and still 15 minutes of the half remaining, Bann continued to show fantastic use of the ball and Donegal found it nearly impossible to cope with the speed of their visitors' attacks. However, a series of slack errors and some individuals wishing to try a move too much, saw a period when the never-say-die home team forced two penalties on Bann's line, before eventually crossing for an unconverted try.

Four minutes into the second half young debutant winger Owen Gallagher finished off the try of the game. Porter had received the ball deep in his own half and when he went on a surging run across field he found support from centres Andrews and Thompson. They both made ground before releasing Gallagher to shrug off two tackles and score. McAllister's conversion miss was to be only his second out of ten all afternoon.

Three minutes later 38-5 became 45-5 when Andrews powered over from 10 metres to earn a deserved hat-trick, set up after the forwards had moved the ball left and right before releasing to the backs.

Gallagher then recorded his second try when the ball was kicked through by Ferris, and veteran Geoff Little was able to go to ground and pop up the ball to Gallagher. Soon after this Ferris then rewarded himself with a fine try, showing great strength to score under the posts.

A classy break and chip by the impressive Gallagher had the home defence retreating at speed, and then interplay by numerous backs and forwards allowed prop Nelson Shanks the privilege of finishing a true team try.

This result saw Bann overtake their opponents at the top of the Conference League. Gallagher, Baird and Chris Allen impressed throughout but the Man-of-the-Match award went to James Andrews, who aside from his three tries, constantly had the Donegal defence in disarray with his storming charges, and supported his team well with his ball distribution.