The Randalstown faithful made the short trip to Eaton Park on Saturday afternoon. Bolstered further by the Ballymena based Randalstown support, friends, neighbours and relations meant there was a sizeable crowd to watch what was a tense, entertaining semi-final between the teams.
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Randalstown started nervously and made a couple of errors which saw them having to defend in front of the own posts in the early stages. Eventually a knock on from the Ballymena pack gave ‘Town a scrum in front of their own posts. It was well defended and the resulting 22 drop out was taken quickly by McCann to gain them yards down the field and relieve the pressure.
An early penalty chance for Randalstown which might have steadied a few nerves sailed just wide. Then with about 15 minutes played the Ballymena fullback scored out wide and the difficult conversion was added. This was a blow for the ‘Town men and they were slightly at sixes and sevens which served to let the aforementioned full back in again for a second converted try.
There was a slightly uncomfortable feeling among the Randalstown support that they could be staring down the barrel of a heavy defeat, but thankfully they gathered their composure and started to play at the standard we know they are capable of.
Ballymena had the advantage in the scrum all afternoon, but on this occasion ‘Town took one against the head and the ball was whipped out to Crawford on the wing. Crawford showed his turn of pace to be every bit as effective as his opposite numbers and sped down the line to touch down in the corner. McCann added the difficult conversion.
David Smyth took a bang on the head during the interchanges and had to retire from the fray, replaced by Ryan Bailey. This didn’t disrupt ‘Town at all and with half time looming the ball came across to the other flank and found Harris lurking. He sped over the line and again McCann added the difficult conversion to square the match. The unfortunate Harris then had to call time on his afternoon as his efforts caused him a knee injury.
‘Town restarted brightly and having forced Ballymena to cough up a few penalties were rewarded with one in a very kickable position. McCann duly obliged and nudged ‘Town into a 3 point lead.
It was the slenderest of margins and Randalstown defended it vigoursly for the next 15 minutes. Both sides made a couple of substitutions and Ballymena had plenty of firepower available on their bench. It was one of their subs, Banks, who struck the killer blow with just over ten minutes remaining. He gathered the ball midfield and scorched through a few tackles to run in for a converted try.
Randalstown worked their way quickly back up the field and got as far as an attacking lineout within about 10 yards of the Ballymena line, but they were unable to breach the home defence as the clock ticked down.
Whilst extremely disappointed to have lost manager Sloane was pleased by the gutsy performance put in by his side. It is not only difficult but maybe a little unfair to single out individuals in what was a fine team performance, but the pick of the pack was probably young Scott Goodrich. Stephen McClenaghan was tireless in defence and made some inroads into the Ballymena defence, whilst in the backline Matty Turner had a solid performance and Peter McCann was sound with the boot all afternoon. Emmet Crawford showed a turn of pace and strength to grab his score and will be one to watch as he becomes more experienced. They only narrowly lost out to formidable and experienced opposition but will have learned lessons do doubt. The 2nd XV still have a few league fixtures remaining and are in a strong position lying 2nd in section 5 at the minute. Focus will now switch to finishing the season on a winning run and hopefully maintaining this position.
Good luck to Ballymena 5s in the cup final later this month.
