Age and treachery over came youth and inexperience today at the lakeside when a very strong Ards side progressed to the next round if the Mc Cambley Cup. In a side that saw Heineken cup winner Rab Irwin in the front row and former Ulster scrum half Andy Matchett line out the Ards side were physically and mentally too strong for the ballyshannon young guns. Ballyshannon were further hindered by the absence of their influential back row players Darragh Tyrell and James O Donnell and to add to their woes they lost out half Mark Rooney late in the first half with a badly dislocated patella. Despite all this the home side can be proud of their effort and performance and were back in the game with ten minutes to go after Anthony Boyle crossed for a try which he converted to reduce the score to 12~7 but shortly afterwards Ards sealed the victory after a magnificent driving maul following a line out to which the home side had no answer! Final score 17~7!
This Ards side has been in six of the last seven cup finals and have won four of them do this was a great learning curve for our boys, so well done again boys!
Best wishes and a speedy recovery to Mark Rooney!!
