ACADEMY 12
BANGOR 36
By Roger Corbett
IN DIFFICULT playing conditions, Bangor cruised to a 12-36 win at Academy in the opening round of this season’s Towns Cup competition.
With Storm Darragh causing many fixtures across Ulster to be postponed, and Bangor having already one rest week behind them, it was good to see this cup fixture going ahead. Roughfort can be an exposed place to play at the best of times and, with little or no shelter from the prevailing wind which was blowing directly along the length of
the pitch, it was going to be interesting to see who would manage the conditions better.
Bangor kicked off with the winds at their backs, but the opening passages of play saw Academy enjoy most of the possession. However, despite stringing several phases of play together, they were unable to break through the Bangor defence.
The difference in attack between the two sides was plain to see when, after 10 minutes of play, Bangor regained possession and were quickly inside the Academy 22. Good interplay between centres Conor Lusty and Ally McIvor caught the Academy defence flat-footed, allowing McIvor to drift through for the opening try, which was also converted by Gareth Millar.
Once again Academy, with the wind in their faces, persevered with running the ball but Bangor’s much more effective tackling prevented any breakthrough and, when the ball was turned over, a long kick downfield quickly turned the tables and put Bangor in a strong attacking position. This was the case after a further 10 minutes had elapsed, and again it was Bangor’s backs who proved to be the more effective when a slick series of passes found Danny Young on the right hand touchline, who then ran through for a try in the corner. Millar’s kick was wide of the posts, but Bangor had now moved into a 0-12 lead.
As if on a 10 minute timer, Bangor struck again after 30 minutes when a powerful forward drive was finished off by Adam Lowry as he gathered the ball from a ruck on the Academy goal line and nipped over for a typical scrum-half try. This time Millar added the extras to stretch Bangor’s lead to 0-19.
Just before half-time, Bangor suffered the loss of Blair Morgan to a yellow card following his disruption of a quick tap penalty by Academy.
As the sides turned around at the break, the question was whether or not Bangor had a big enough lead as they prepared to play into the wind. In fact, it looked like the wind wasn’t the immediate advantage Academy were hoping for as their restart kick went all the way over the dead ball line and handed the initiative back to Bangor with a centre spot scrum. With Bangor enjoying dominance in the scrums, this set up another great attacking opportunity.
Having won the ball, Ollie Cain, Marty Withers and Jack Andreassen powered through to the Academy 22 before a well-timed pass found Mike Weir who burst through to score
which, although unconverted, put Bangor further ahead at 0-24.
With just three minutes of the second half played, this score seemed to deflate the Academy players and very quickly Bangor went over for another try, this time through Ryan Young.
Now 29 points ahead, it looked like there was no way back for the home side. However, an unfortunate event where Ollie Cain accidentally up-ended an Academy player while trying to avoid the tackle saw Bangor reduced to 14 men once more. This proved to be a costly yellow card for Bangor as Academy made full use of the extra wind and manpower advantage and scored two tries and a conversion to close the gap to 12-29, with 15 minutes left to play.
With Bangor eventually back to full strength, and fresh legs added to the line-up in the form of Jonah Topping – making his 1st XV debut at scrum half – and Jamie Thallon in the second row, the game soon swung back to the visitors. The game was put to bed shortly afterwards when Thallon finished off another incisive attack, scoring under the Academy posts and giving Millar a simple conversion to bring the final score to 12-36.
Bangor now face another two-week break before travelling to the new league leaders Dromore, who are now the only unbeaten side in the league.
Although this was a good performance, there are still plenty of things which will need to be improved upon if they are to have any chance of upsetting Dromore’s upward progress. However, Bangor will also be looking to continue their recent good run of results and, if they can cause an upset at Dromore, they will keep things tight at the top end of the league table as the competition reaches its halfway point.
