An injury hit Bangor side travelled to Dungannon for the second round of the Junior Cup. Despite taking the lead, and enjoying much of the possession, Bangor succumbed to a combination of poor finishing and weak defence to finally lose by 24-7.
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With six of their regular team members missing through injury or work commitments, and discovering a stronger than expected opposition, Bangor got proceedings underway, playing with the wind at their backs.
From the outset, they were determined to go on the attack – something that perhaps surprised the Dungannon players, as they conceded a penalty within 2 minutes of kick-off. Keith Rossan’s kick went wide, but Bangor were still in an attacking position. Just a few minutes later, Curtis Stewart picked up from the back of a comfortable Bangor scrum and made some valuable yards before off-loading to Ricky Armstrong. While just on the Dungannon twenty two metre line, Armstrong passed to Andrew Jackson who saw a gap and started for the line. Although crowded by four Dungannon defenders, he managed to evade their tackles and crashed over for an excellent individual try, just to the right of the posts. With Rossan’s successful kick, the score was 0-7 to Bangor.
From the restart, Bangor continued taking the game to Dungannon. Just 7 minutes later, good forward play once again brought the game deep into Dungannon territory. When the ball got to Curtis Stewart, he broke through the home defence and looked as though he was heading for Bangor’s second try. However, in trying to position himself to deal with a potential tackle from the Dungannon full-back, he lost his grip on the ball and knocked it on. With hindsight, this was a costly mishap, as another converted try so soon in game would have really unsettled the home side, and given them a lot to do to get back into the reckoning.
Undeterred, it was Bangor who were still in charge and in fact had another penalty opportunity when Dungannon strayed offside. However, as this kick was missed, Dungannon must have felt relieved that Bangor’s lead was still just 7 points. It was not until 30 minutes had elapsed that Dungannon had an attacking scrum in Bangor’s twenty two. A quick, clean ball was picked up from the back of the scrum and, in just two further passes, resulted in a try in the right hand corner. The difficult kick into the wind was successful, tying the scores at 7-7.
As Dungannon got the second half underway, the wind and rain of the first half gave way to sunshine and very little breeze. Unfortunately these improved playing conditions were not reflected in Bangor’s ball handling. With just 5 minutes gone, a loose pass went to ground and was picked up by Dungannon who ran through a number of poor Bangor tackles to give them an easy second try. With the added conversion, the home side now led by 14-7.
In another example of mixed fortunes, Bangor missed another penalty opportunity, whereas just 3 minutes afterwards, Dungannon converted one of their own, stretching the lead to 17-7.
Despite the scores going against them, and with the game far from over, Bangor stuck to their task and continued to push forward. A few minutes later, the ball was passed wide to winger Matt Leabody who went over in the corner, but the try was disallowed for the pass being forward. This was the story of Bangor’s game, where mistakes at a critical point in the attack spoiled a scoring opportunity. By contrast, Dungannon were able to make the most of the few chances they had. This was finally driven home when, within 5 minutes of full time, they made a quick break from within their own half, rescuing a poor pass with a clever flick to give them a two on one situation which they gratefully accepted, running in their third try under the posts.
Even though reduced to 14 men as a result of Armstrong’s departure through injury, Bangor valiantly took the game back to Dungannon over the closing minutes and, although within sight of the line on two occasions, were again unable to convert these chances to points.
As the whistle for full time came, the Bangor contingent acknowledged Dungannon as worthy winners, but perhaps with a scoreline that did not accurately reflect the actual passage of play. The Bangor players acquitted themselves well in what were certainly difficult circumstances, and will be well aware of what went wrong on this occasion. As Bangor now leave the Junior Cup competition, and with no match scheduled for next week, the hope is that this short break will provide adequate time for recuperation for those currently on the injured list, and preparation for another tough away game to Carrickfergus in the league.
Bangor team: J Harrison, A Jackson, P Nicoll, S Gilliland, R Meeke, I McBurney (C Hompstead), N Hatton, C Stewart, R Armstrong (c), K Rossan, J Foulkes, M Aspley, C Morgan (R Law), M Leabody, P Gray
Bangor Scores: A Jackson (1T), K Rossan (1C)
Time to make a note of some forthcoming social events…
On Saturday 15th December, Ulster play Northampton Saints in the 4th pool game in this season’s Heineken Cup. If you aren’t going to Ravenhill, why not come down to the club where food and drink (with some promotions) will be available.
The annual club dinner and awards ceremony will take place in the clubhouse on Saturday 23rd February. More details about this will follow later, but in the meantime if you would like to host a table please contact Jonny Watson with the details.
