Sat 28th Dec, 14:30 Coleraine 3 13 – 13 Ballymoney 3
Ballymoney draw and retain the Robinson Cup
by Neil Campbell
Ballymoney 3rd retain the Robinson Cup
In a hard fought draw Ballymoney left the field the slightly more disappointed team. Having lead for 75 minutes for Coleraine to snatch a draw from defeat left a slightly bitter taste in the mouth. However captain and vice captain couldn’t have asked anything more from the young Ballymoney side. Right from the start Coleraine set out their stall sending their bigger forwards down the narrow channels looking to run over Ballymoney on the way to the try line. The Ballymoney team was having none of this repeatedly making the big hits and forcing Coleriane back.
With 5 minutes on the clock Ballymoney forced their way into the Coleriane 22 and with pressure starting to tell Coleraine conceded an early penalty. Up stepped Nathanial to slot the penalty straight between the uprights, 0-3 Ballymoney. Ballymoney failed to deal with the kick off and only great defence forced Coleraine back. Several times Coleraine where stopped 5 yards out and in many cases where driven back. After clearing their lines Ballymoney had a spell when they were on top and again forced the play into the Coleriane 22. A quick pickup by the veterian Toss driving into the heart of Coleraine defence and quick rucked ball fed out the back with Sketlon junior cutting back inside and scoring a beautiful try below the posts. Easily converted by Nathanial, 0-10 Ballymoney.
Toss claimed that was a preplanned move practised in the garden this morning and the first pint was on Andrew.
Again Ballymoney failed to deal with the kick off and allowed Coleraine to attack and after several phases the big forwards finally forced their way over the line for a try, converted by the Coleraine No10, the score now 7-10. The reminder of the half swung one way and the other. A penalty from the Coleraine out half brought the score to 10-10. However with half drawing to a close Ballymoney won another penalty and Nathanial duely converted to give Ballymoney 10-13 lead at half time.
The second half started with Ballymoney having more of the play but just failing to make that final killer pass, allowing Coleraine of the hook on a number of occasions. Much of that must go down to some great last ditch tackling by Coleraine.
With both side looking for the win, the game again swung one way and the other. Great tackling by both sides making it very hard to cross the gain line. With the game drawing to a close and several bodies taking a real battering along the way, in a very hard physical battle one minute of note for the players on both sides was after a penalty conceeded on Coleraines’s line the no10 stepped up to releive the pressure and asked the referee how long left. The reply by the referee was 20 mins which was greeted by “you must be joking” by Coleraine, a comment echoed by Ballymoney.
With Coleraine pressing for a winning score they opted to go for touch rather than kick for goal on a couple of occasions. However with two minutes remaining on the clock they won a penalty which this time they opted to kick and converted to level the score 13 all. From the kick off Ballymoney quickly went on the attacking aagain utv the final whistle thwarted them.
Comments after the match was a very relieved Coleraine who presently sit above Ballymoney in the league but happily accepted the draw and felt happy and luck to share the spoils. Both sets of supporters where treated to very phyical game by both sides with no quarter asked or given.
Comments by the Ballymoney management team was that if we can play with that level of intensity every week you will see Ballymoney push in the second half of the season and move up the league table, with hopefully a good run in the cup when we might again meet the old adversary in the later stages
Man of the Match : The over excellent team performance means that the man of match award was shared between four players, Toss Skelton, Joel Hegarty, Neil Campbell & Chris Morrison.
