BANBRIDGE 2NDs 22 Rainey 2nds 10
Banbridge Seconds out-scored their Rainey counterparts four tries to one to take their place rightfully in the quarter-final of the Towns’ Cup. But they again laboured at times to kill off the opposition, although the encouraging thing is that they do produce the goods when they need to. This was a gutsy team performance, marked by another inspirational display from Man of the Match, hooker Paul Ross.
Bann started at a high tempo and for the opening period they had the visitors on the rack with the forwards showing their power. No8 Sam Boyd was unlucky to have the ball nudged out of his hand when across the whitewash and minor errors prevented Bann from registering the score their dominance warranted.
However 20 minutes into the game James Andrews sent a penalty deep into the Rainey “22”. When Rainey were penalised at the lineout Bann opted for the scrum. It was no surprise when the home eight powered forward for scrum half Craig Mulholland to get the try. McAllister was just off target with the conversion, but Bann were up and running on 5-0.
Ten minutes before the break and with Rainey trying their best to punch holes in the resolute Bann defence, winger Packie Downey came up brilliantly to read a pass. His interception on the half-way line saw him stretch his legs and leave the covering defence in his wake to score. McAllister’s conversion pushed the lead to 12 points at the break.
The second period began with Bann knowing they had to push on from their slightly erratic first half display. They had plenty more in the tank to overwhelm Rainey, and indeed this was displayed when they secured ball off the kick off. The forwards steadied themselves and then went on a superb rolling maul deep into the “22”, but once again a silly error cost them their due reward. Credit to Rainey, though, as they used the home team’s lack of cohesion to make ground and then slot over a 25 metre penalty.
This spurred them into a period of pressure on the Bann line, but time and again the well organised defence held them out. Credit in this period goes to the front row of Nelson Shanks, Ross, but more especially Michael McKee, who stood in admirably when coming on for the injured cornerstone prop James McCrum.
This period of play saw second row Philip Jordan receive a ten minute spell in the sin bin, but Bann then demonstrated their forward power when the pack of seven was still able to dominate the set piece. This fantastic effort in defence saw Bann up the tempo and gain good ground up the line off the huge boot of Andrews. From there it was no surprise when Bann maintained the momentum that saw Mulholland drive forward for 10 metres on his own before his pack helped him. When the ball went to ground, there was Paul Ross to take the drive on. He twisted out of the first tackle and showed his strength in powering through two further defenders before grounding the ball behind the try line.
With Bann soon back to full complement, they moved further ahead with six minutes of normal time remaining. Yet again it was through another well read intercept by Downey. Rainey’s attempts to set up an unlikely grand finale ended when the big winger raced in, yet again from the half-way line, to move the score to 22-3.
As the game then moved into injury time, about eight minutes of it, Bann frustratingly allowed Rainey in for a converted try right on the whistle to make the final score 22-10. This gave the result an impression of a close game, when, although Rainey would argue that they conceded two intercept tries, the fact was that it was Bann that forced them into attempting those risky passes.
