Randalstown 2nd XV 22 Ballymena 4th XV 12
A young Randalstown 2nds took their revenge on Ballymena 4ths at Neillsbrook on Saturday afternoon.
The first half saw them run in four tries without reply. The scores came in a flurry after about 15 minutes played. First over was young Donnelly out wide. Then some good handling along the backline, marshalled by senior statesman Turner at the ripe old age of 21, allowed Conor Murray to scamper in.
Captain Hyndman had a hand in the lead up to the 3rd score when he cleaned up from a messy lineout but was harshly adjudicated to have been in touch before offloading. Karma saw ‘Town disrupting the resulting Ballymena lineout and again spreading the ball wide to go deep into visitor territory. The experienced James Millar was able to barge over from close quarters and extend the lead.
With half time approaching ‘Town remained the livelier team with Emmet Crawford catching the eye as he kicked, chased and made some good yards. A lovely up and under well followed up by Crawford saw him offload to Donnelly. Unfortunately he just hadn’t sufficient inches between him and the touchline, but again ‘Town scavenged well from the lineout and Hamilton came up with the ball. He passed to Goodrich who had the pace to run in behind the posts leaving Turner with the straightforward conversion.
The second half was a sharp contrast, and a dour affair from a Randalstown point of view. It was a good twenty minutes before the scoreboard was further troubled and this time it was Ballymena who popped up with a converted try.
The visitors continued to put pressure on the home defence and captain Hyndman ended up in the bin for pulling down a maul. Ballymena stayed close to the ‘Town line however and were able to reset and barge over for their second try.
The game finished in a flurry of Randalstown activity and Crawford came close to adding to the Randalstown tally only to slip with a few yards to go. ‘Town retained ball well but several efforts ended frustratingly when the final pass just wouldn’t go to hand.
This was a fine effort from a young ‘Town side and hopefully bodes well for next season.
Ophir 2nd XV 5 Randalstown 3rd XV 7
Meanwhile just up the road at Mallusk the 3rd XV also brought home the spoils with a hard fought 7-5 win against Ophir.
Minus a few regulars but with able deputies hopes were high for a victory. Ophir had other ideas though and had a lot of early pressure on the town defence. This allied with indiscipline led to an Ophir try as the defence gave in eventually to sustained attack.
The town lads began to claw their way back into the game only for a few decisions to go against them. Outhalf Adrian Johnston with his cousin Adam at first centre continually sought breeches in the Ophir defence and were most unlucky on several occasions.
Simon Moon, a late arrival, was thrown into action for the second half and with the two Johnstons on top form this proved a formidable coalition as the town pressed for an equaliser. Michael ‘Donkey’ Reeves had several great carries before Ash ‘The Tank’ Mc Clenaghan took route one and bulldozed his way through the hapless Ophir defence to plant the ball below the uprights, leaving an easy conversion for captain Johnston. Game on!
Ophir were not going to go down without a fight however and if it wasn’t for the heroic tackling of ‘man of the match’ fullback Shaun Mc Crory the outcome could have been so different. The ‘town were made to sweat as two late Ophir penalties were missed in the spiralling wind before the ref signalled fulltime.
Phil Clyde had another superb game at number eight tackling and running well. David Frew again impressed at scrumhalf and wee prop Gary Paine had several great carries. Again a fab all round team performance played in good spirit on a tricky playing surface. Next week the thirds face a tough away encounter to highflying Malone.
