This was the second in a series of friendlies against Bangor. It was another close encounter with Instonians winning on this occasion.
They had to play against a stiff breeze in the first half. They repulsed a number of Bangor attacks and even managed to gain some territory in the Bangor half from time to time. But eventually they conceded a try in the corner which was converted by an excellent kick after 15 minutes. Bangor struck again five minutes later with a penalty from in front of the posts. That ended the scoring in the first half with Bangor leading 10-0.
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Things did not look to be too difficult to Instonians in the second half as they now enjoyed the benefit of the wind. They immediately mounted pressure but it took then 10 minutes before they registered their first try by out-half Andy Keane. This was converted by Joe Fryers. A second try came a couple of minutes later when Ben Davis, playing out of position in the centre, broke through to run half the length of the pitch. This put Instonians in the lead for the first time and appeared to put them in a commanding position with about twenty minutes to go. 
All they had to do was play a simple game plan by kick the ball into the Bangor half and then keep them under pressure. However, Instonians had other ideas and conspired to almost throw the game away. First, they missed the simple conversion at the posts by, inexplicably, taking a drop kick conversion which missed. They then began to fall foul of the referee by giving away pointless and unnecessary penalties. This was compounded by arguing some of the decisions with the ref. One such indiscretion, when the referee march them back all of 20 metres allowed Bangor to mount one last attack from which they scored an unconverted try in the corner. This put them back in the lead.
Thereafter sense started to prevail .They started to kick astutely and Instonians took the ball up through Ryan Hickland and Robbie Alexander. The latter barged over for an unconverted try with just a couple of minutes left, leaving Bangor with no way back.
It was disappointing that out of a squad of well over 30 players that only fifteen turned up for the game. Some players may have been caught up the Regional Development Squad, but, nonetheless it was a poor turnout. It meant that several players had to play out of position; for example a second row playing in the centre and a prop forward playing number 8. But these players acquitted themselves well. It also gave valuable experience to a number of players on the fringe of the team. We played with a completely new and largely untested back row.
The u17’s go back to league action next week. Some of today’s fringe players will have put their hands up for inclusion in the starting line up.
