The weather conditions during the week meant that the friendly fixture between Sullivan Upper and Ballymena Academy was moved from Hollywood to the Galgorm Road venue. Following a 12 – 7 victory for Ballymena earlier in the month, two of the teams seeded to enter the Danske Bank Schools’ Cup at the 4th round stage played out another tight contest on Saturday morning.
With Duncan Maguire and Calvin Kernohan unavailable due to injury, Ballymena took the field with a reshuffled back row that saw Josh McIlroy pack down at number 8. Sullivan started well and took the lead after 5 minutes with a Mark Adair penalty. Moments later, some excellent vision by Adair saw the ball moved wide into space for Sullivan to touch down in the corner.
The conversion was unsuccessful and the score remained 8 – 0 until Andrew Magrath slotted a penalty for the home team. Ballymena continued to pressurise the Sullivan line and it was Magrath who was on hand to touch down following a Brian Mulholland chip. Magrath converted his own try to increase his team’s lead to 13 – 8 at half time……. CLICK HERE for the full story
