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Junior Cup: Ballymena II's 38 - 3 Donaghadee (04/09/99)

"Rarely can a rugby football club start a new season with such a daunting three weeks as Donaghadee has had this year. In the space of just over a fortnight the First Fifteen has played against strong sides from Belfast Harlequins and Clonakilty (Munster) in friendly fixtures, against Bangor and Ards in the North Down Cup and on Saturday last against Ballymena Seconds at Eaton Park in the Junior Cup.

Three Ulster Senior League squads and a First Fifteen from Munster were a severe test for these young men of Donaghadee aspiring to scale the heights of Qualifying League II this season. Donaghadee did manage to see off both Bangor and Ards, but the other sides were a bit stronger.

The last of this quintet was, in the opinion of this observer, the fittest, strongest and best-drilled team of the five, certainly up front. The reserve strength of an All-Ireland Senior I club such as Ballymena should, of course, be strong, but this Ballymena Second Fifteen showed Donaghadee how they must play if they are to gain promotion this season. If they can learn lessons from this game they can certainly achieve success, because the men of Donaghadee will not meet anybody else this season of the calibre of last Saturday's opponents.

The game started intensely enough, as these cup matches do. For about ten minutes the two sides tested each other out, a few penetrating kicks either way and a few runs stopped short before they became dangerous. The first sign of real and effective aggression came from Donaghadee. Not surprisingly for those who have seen him play, Matt Duff took a ball he had received in his own half almost to the host team's line - by route one. Those few Ballymena stalwarts who took him on single-handed must have regretted it, but their rearguard quickly realised the benefits of concerted action and finally put a stop to the charge right on their line.

Perhaps this realisation of danger stiffened the loins of the Ballymena men. Their play became noticeably more controlled and waves of attacks were mounted. The pressure almost inevitably led to an over-eagerness to kill the ball by the stout Donaghadee defenders and a very kickable penalty was awarded to Ballymena. Coolly rejecting the obvious opportunity to gain three points, Ballymena kicked the ball into touch near the Dee line. The throw was good, the catch was better and the resulting maul totally controlled. A textbook try by Ballymena, followed by a good conversion from quite far out, and the score was suddenly 7-0.

Even more suddenly the score was 14-0. From the kick-off Ballymena kicked diagonally deep into the Donaghadee right. Jeff Allen and Peter Gray took the ball, working together, but were overwhelmed by a number of Ballymena backs and forwards following up very fast. They dispossessed the two backfield men and presented their winger with an easy run in for another score.

Ballymena now tightened up the game and kept the ball among the forwards. Donaghadee continued to resist manfully, each of them no doubt missing the stalwarts who were unavailable for the cup match. Eventually the heavier Ballymena pack had to gain their reward. Another line-out, this time on the right, was turned into a tight driving maul and a roll-over try.

Donaghadee were not beaten. They worked their way upfield and forced Ballymena to concede a penalty, which Paul Blewitt converted to make the score 19-3. Almost immediately the home side went into top gear again and scored a fine try to turn the teams round with Donaghadee now trailing by a daunting 26 points to 3.

It was not poor tackling or an inability to run which was beating Donaghadee. It was just that the power and superiority of the Ballymena front five ensured their team most of the possession, and the support of their back row players, and others, ensured that they captured any loose ball thus giving the visiting team little chance to show that they can play rugby.

The second half started off a little better than the first for Donaghadee, even though Nigel Forsythe had been forced to accept that the neck injury he had been carrying for half an hour was too much to go on with. He was replaced by Stephen Hagan. After a well contested period with Ian Martindale and David McMinn putting in some solid tackles, Donaghadee were suddenly reeling from a double whammy from the Balymena left winger, who was having an excellent game. First he was released by a well-timed pass and showed real pace to outdistance the covering defence, and almost immediately showed similar pace to catch Matt Duff who had run almost the length of the field. This Donaghadee hooker has few faults on the rugby football field, but expecting a winger's pace in a hooker is probably asking a bit too much.

Paul Blewitt was forced to go off at this point and Chris Beattie substituted. But essentially the game was over. Donaghadee still continued to tackle and cover. They kept their discipline throughout, but were unable to stop a couple more scores from a now-rampant Ballymena, anxious to show their stuff to a well-entertained crowd. The final score of 43-3 to Ballymena did seem a bit high since their back division had not been able to break through Donaghadee's central defence all day, and they had kicked too much to a back three who had mostly been able to cope with that. Where Ballymena II's are stronger than any junior sides is in the forwards. Their pack would grace any field in Ulster."