Malone hosted Ballymena at Gibson Park in the 1st Round of the First Trust Senior Cup. It was a superb day the sun shone and some entertaining rugby took place from both teams.

The visitors made the early running attacking the Malone line with piercing breaks forcing Malone to defend strongly. However it was Malone who opened the scoring against the run of play after making a superb break from Peter Henderson put them in the danger zone the ball was worked from a ruck on the left hand side of the field, first by the forward then the back line and it was full back Henderson who took the last pass and ran in under the posts to set up an easy conversion for Mark Gribben.

2 minutes later Malone struck again when probing the visitors defence the were awarded a penalty, scrum half Shane Kelly took a quick tap and burst through the visitors defence and off loaded the ball to captain Neil Alcorn who ran in under the posts to set up another easy conversion which mark Gribben made. This gave Malone a 14-0 lead.

On 14 minutes Ballymena scored an excellent try when outhalf Rory Drysdale made a super break the ball was moved at pace to the wing where centre Mike McKeever showed excellent pace to out run the Malone defence to score an unconverted try in the corner. 14-5.

Ballymena continued to move the ball launching numerous attacks, however some less than perfect handling accompanied by some outstanding defence allowed Malone to frustrate them. Malone should have scored a try when after a line out the ball was moved in field at pace centre Michael Barker made a superb break and passed inside to his fellow centre Mark Gribben who ran across the field towards the corer and looked to have crossed the line however a superb defensive tackle dislodged the ball which was knocked forward.

The half came to an end with Malone scoring their third try through captain Neil Alcorn. The ball was moved at pace from an attacking ruck John Creighton off loaded inside to Marshall who fed Alcorn who ran into score in the corner, Mark Gribben made it three from three from the touchline to end the 1st half with Malone 21-5 ahead.

Ballymena started the 2nd period strongly and scored a well worked try from a line out David Whan took possession and after a few well worked phases Whan found himself crossing the line for another unconverted try. Score now 21-10.

Malone counters with a further try when full back Peter Henderson evaded some weak Ballymena tackling to score an unconverted try. 26-10. Malone finished the game the stronger and further tries followed from hooker Phil Eaddie, replacement Rob Haldane and flanker David Marshall. The final score saw Malone win by 43-10.

This was an excellent result and well deserved by the whole team who showed guts, skill and determination throughout the game.