JUNIOR CUP GROUP 1
BANGOR 7
BALLYMENA 2XV 17
By Roger Corbett
A LACKLUSTRE Bangor allowed Ballymena 2nds to take advantage and progress to the knockout stages of the Junior Cup.
A poor start to this year’s competition meant that Bangor had to pick up a win in this group stage if they were to have any chance of moving forward to the quarter finals.
Although Craig Gilroy was unavailable, Bangor were pleased to see Rhys Larmour return from injury and resume his reliable kicking duties at out half. In the pack, Charlie Sargaison came in at prop and Ethan Murray returned at wing forward.
The opening exchanges were a pretty even-handed affair, with both sides taking time to settle into a coherent playing style. Bangor’s positional play looked good, but when Ballymena mounted an attack, they looked less confident in defence and this proved their undoing after just 13 minutes of play.
Ballymena were pushing forward, but Bangor had regained possession and were trying to build a counter attack from within their own 22. As Ballymena harried the Bangor players, a pass to nowhere was easily picked up by the visitors and, with the Bangor line now out of shape, this left an easy run through for a try close to Bangor’s posts.
The simple conversion was added, putting Ballymena 0-7 ahead, somewhat against the run of play.
Bangor recovered pretty quickly from this unfortunate setback, and were soon back on the offensive. From a penalty close to the middle of the pitch, Larmour produced a good kick to touch which gave Bangor an attacking lineout just outside Ballymena’s five metre line.
From the lineout, Bangor moved the maul infield and, after a few more phases, their hard work and patience paid off when Charlie Sargaison forced his way over the line and scored under the Ballymena posts.
Larmour easily added the extras to level the score at 7-7, with 22 minutes gone.
Bangor now enjoyed most of the attacking play, and this pressure was soon rewarded with a penalty in front of the Ballymena posts.
Perhaps feeling that the game’s momentum was with them, Bangor spurned the option of kicking for three points, and instead looked to gain more from their pack. This proved to be a missed opportunity to take the lead as Ballymena’s solid defence managed to weather the attack and then clear their lines.
Unfortunately, Bangor failed to learn from this outcome when another, similar opportunity presented itself within another few minutes. Once again they chose not to kick for goal and were left pondering another missed opportunity to take the lead.
As the second half got underway, Bangor continued to push forward but were unable to make the telling pressure pay off. By contrast, Ballymena had fewer incursions to the Bangor twenty two, but when they did, they made their visit worthwhile.
A penalty in front of Bangor’s posts was gratefully accepted, adding three points to their tally and then, as Bangor were caught in a moment of indecision, Ballymena exploited the lapse in defence to run through for their second try which was also converted, giving them a 7-17 lead.
With less than a quarter of the game left to play, Bangor kept trying to produce some of the flowing rugby that had marked their previous couple of outings. Unfortunately, the control and composure were sadly lacking and Ballymena were able to maintain their lead to the final whistle.
This loss sees Bangor fail to make the knockout stage of the Junior Cup with one more group game left to play. To add to that frustration, their fixture against Banbridge 2nds in November will effectively be a dead rubber as their opponents face the same situation.
With a challenging return to league action next weekend, away to top-of-the-table Enniskillen, Bangor will be hoping to rediscover their earlier try-scoring form and produce a performance worthy of their abilities.
While they will probably be regarded as the underdogs on this occasion, there is no reason why they shouldn’t be able to cause an upset at Mullaghmeen, and keep pressing for one of the top positions in Championship 1.
