Malone take the win against Ballymena

UlSTER RUGBY PREMIERSHIP DIV 1
Ballymena 17 Malone 34
It may have been a chilly night for the supporters who made their way to Eaton Park on Thursday night. With injuries and unavailability determining team selections it did not spoil the entertainment provided by both teams. Good ball retention from the kick off allowed Malone full back Mark O’Connor to give his team an early 3 – 0 lead from a straight forward penalty. The Ballymena response was immediate with second row Conor Smyth very prominent in his carries. When Ballymena centre Alan Smyth made a break Malone were forced to concede a penalty. The home side opted for a scrum and proceeded to win a succession of penalties before eventually moving the ball wide for centre Alan Smyth to touch down with winger James Boville adding the conversion to give his side a 7 – 3 lead. The Ballymena tactics were to play for field position as they lost back row Ben O’Ryan to injury to be replaced by Matthew Dick. Another penalty by Boville extended the home sides lead to 10 – 3. Handling errors allowed Ballymena to gain territory with Malone losing second row Tom Dullage to injury to be replaced by Tiarnan Dillon. The strong carries by Conor Smyth and centre James Beattie continued to pose problems for the Malone defence. Out half Conor Spence showed his ability to find space for his Malone colleagues as he put winger Andy Bryans away for a try converted by O’Connor to level the scores at 10 -10 coming up to half time. From the kick off Ballymena had a double penalty awarded against them to allow Mark O’Connor to convert a 40 metre penalty to give his team a 13 – 10 lead at halftime.
Malone made changes in the front row with Philip Eadie replacing Ricky Greenwood and Ben Halliday moving to loose head. These changes appeared to steady the Malone front row with winger Rory Campbell coming on to take his place on the wing. We did not have to wait long for Ballymena to regain the lead. Again a series of five metre scrum penalties resulted in a carbon copy try to their first with centre James Beattie carrying through to touch down for Boville to convert to allow Ballymena to lead 17 – 13 after 50 minutes. The action in the next 20 minutes was contained to the middle of the park with both teams defences proving difficult to break down. It looked like Ballymena were going to hold on for a narrow win with 6/7 minutes remaining. Malone gained possession and went through the phases to attack the Ballymena line resulting in prop Ben Halliday touching down with O’Connor kicking an excellent touchline conversion to restore the Malone lead to 20 – 17. The momentum had fully swung in favour of the Malone team with minutes remaining. Again good handling orchestrated by out half Conor Spence allowed the hard working second row James McAllister to touch down for his teams third try with O’Connor adding the conversion to increase the Malone lead to 27 – 17. With the game entering injury time Spence put a kick in behind the Ballymena cover for centre Gareth Millar to show his footballing skills to score the all important bonus point 4th try. O’Connor made it a perfect 6/ 6 by adding the conversion.

The result has Malone level on 15 points with leaders and current Stevenson Shield holders City of Armagh with one game to play. Banbridge are in 3rd place on 11 points with a game in hand. Games remaining include Malone v City of Armagh at Gibson Park on the 10th March. City of Armagh v Banbridge on the 15th March and Banbridge v City of Derry at Rifle Park on the 10th March. Any one of the these three teams depending on results can win the Stevenson Shield.

Malone team: 1. Ben Halliday, 2. Dave Cave, 3. Ricky Greenwood. 4. James McAllister, 5. Tom Dullage, 6. Ross Todd (Captain), 7. Stuart Doddington, 8. Ryan Clarke, 9. Callum Jeffrey, 10. Conor Spence, 11. Neil Alcorn, 12. Gareth Millar, 13. Andy Bryans, 14. Jack McMurtry, 15. Mark O’Connor , 16. Philip Eadie, 17. Dan Kerr, 18. Tiarnan Dillon, 19. Callum Smith, 20 Rory Campbell.

Ballymena team: 1. Nacho Clandero Crespo, 2. James Taggart, 3. Chris Cundell, 4. David Whann, 5. Conor Smyth, 6. Ben O’Ryan, 7. Dominic Gallagher, 8. Joe Thompson, 9. David O’Hara, 10. Steven Shaw, 11. Andrew Foster, 12. Alan Smyth, 13. James Beattie, 14. James Boville, 15. John Loughlin, 16. Houston Bonnar, 17. Ryan Matheison, 18. Matthew Dick, 19. Rodger McBurney, 20. Chris Smyth.