On a wet and miserable afternoon at Upritchard Park, Bangor hosted Ballyclare in the first round of the Millar McCall Wylie Junior Cup,eventually finishing as 35-17 winners.
With further meetings in the league competition later, both sides were anxious to assert themselves. However, it was Bangor who made an explosive start with a converted try in the first minute of the game, and adding a further two to lead by 28-10 at half time. The second half was a more even affair, with both sides getting a converted try each, but Bangor’s first half performance had provided the platform to finish on top.
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This Saturday was notable for a number of reasons in that it marked the 1st XV’s first home game, the first round of the Junior Cup, and the first corporate lunch of the season. While corporate lunches do not usually merit a mention in the match report, this one was notable for the welcome remarks and response by the respective club presidents. The craic was good, the weather was bad, and nobody seemed to notice that the 2:30pm kick-off was suddenly upon us. Those who didn’t manage to tear themselves away would have missed what may turn out to be the quickest try scored by Bangor for some time.
Bangor have looked particularly sharp from the kick-off this season, and today was no exception. With the Ballyclare players not fully up to speed from the kick-off, Rob McCausland collected the ball just inside the Ballyclare half, put his head down and ran straight through the bewildered defence to score under the posts. The referee noted the score time as 48 seconds! The simple conversion was kicked by Keith Rossan.
Bangor continued to press and kept Ballyclare on the defence through good forward play and territorial kicking. Having found touch in the left hand corner close to the Ballyclare line, Bangor stole the lineout and from the resulting ruck, Peter Corbett gathered and crashed over for the try. Despite the narrow angle, Rossan’s kick was good making the score now 14-0 after just ten minutes. Ballyclare were obviously forced to raise their game and, just five minutes later forced a lineout close to Bangor’s line after winning a penalty. This time their lineout was taken cleanly, and in similar fashion to Bangor a few minutes earlier, crashed over for their first try which was successfully converted to reduce the gap to 14-7.
Bangor may have felt that this score was against the run of play, but put it behind them five minutes later with another successful Rossan kick from a penalty for the Ballyclare prop not binding properly. Then, just another two minutes later, Chris Morris threw a long pass out to Richard Corbett who made a determined run to score in the left hand corner, shrugging off the attentions of two Ballyclare defenders in doing so. The Bangor forwards were now full of confidence and very quickly forced another penalty which Rossan duly converted making the score now 25-7.
Bangor’s sense of urgency sometimes got the better of them, resulting in them straying offside. Ballyclare pulled back 3 points from such a penalty, but once more Bangor came straight back forcing a penalty from Ballyclare in return. With Rossan on target once more, the first half came to a close with Bangor ahead by 28-10.
The restart saw Ballyclare more composed, forcing Bangor to concede penalties for high tackles and off-sides. By this stage the referee had seen enough of these repeated infringements and yellow-carded an unlucky Freddie Black who had just come on in place of Tony Brown. Ballyclare saw an opportunity, but to Bangor’s credit they were unable to make this advantage count. With Black now back after his ten minute rest, Bangor came back at Ballyclare with Chris Morris making another great line break, just being pushed into touch a few yards from the goal line. From a knock-on at the lineout, Bangor won a scrum. The Bangor pack provided the ball to Ricky Armstrong who saw a gap and forced his way over for Bangor’s fourth try of the afternoon. Rossan’s impressive kicking continued making the score now 35-10.
With Ballyclare now throwing everything into attack, the next twenty minutes were played mostly in Bangor’s half. Bangor defended well, but fell foul of the referee again when Richard Corbett was sin-binned for another offside offence. The resulting penalty was quickly taken, allowing Ballyclare to run in their second try of the afternoon, which was successfully converted. However, with only a few minutes left, Bangor defended well and finished the game as 35-17 winners, setting up a second round encounter with Ballymena 2nds.
This was a good Bangor performance, with many players gaining confidence in both individual and team play. With next week’s game at home against QL2 league leaders Carrickfergus, the hope is that this confidence and good run of results will continue and help build a platform from which to mount a serious challenge in both league and cup competitions.
Bangor team : S Irvine, A Jackson, J Harrison, T Brown (F Black), R Corbett, R McCausland (C), I McBurney (D Lynn), P Corbett, R Armstrong, K Rossan, J Foulkes, C Morris, M Aspey, J McMullan, D Charles
Bangor Scores: R McCausland (1T), P Corbett (1T), R Corbett (1T), R Armstrong (1T), K Rossan (3C, 3P)
