This was a very hard fought friendly at Uprichard Park on Sunday, 30 October. With a lot of players away for their half-term break Instonians can be proud of their effort. Some of the players were very disappointed by the result but in the end it was only a number of small errors that cost them victory.
Instonians opened the scoring after 7 minutes with a well taken try by Ryan Hickland after a period of intense pressure. Ryan had a smashing game –playing this week in the second row. Inst used the wind well and kept Bangor under constant pressure in the first half. Hooker Ethan White burrowed over for another well taken try to leave the score 10 – 0 on the stroke of half time.
A couple of minor errors and lapses in concentration allowed Bangor right back into the game immediately on the restart. Their number 8 drove strongly from a scrum on the halfway line and Instonians failed to set up a defence on the blindside of a ruck near their line. This resulted in a try in the corner, which was converted by an excellent kick from the touchline. Instonians then mounted plenty of pressure on the Bangor line but failed to make the breakthrough. After about 20 minutes Bangor were able to set up another ruck near the Instonian try line and were lucky when the referee ruled that a try had been scored right at the corner flag. In a professional match the referee would almost certainly have called for the video ref. This score put Bangor 12-10 ahead.
Instonians continued to have the better of territory and possession and mounted numerous drives to the Bangor line. To their credit Bangor held out. Strangely Instonians opted to run the ball from a penalty in front of the Bangor posts about 15 metres out with just a few minutes left on the clock. They turned the ball over and Bangor launched one more attack which brought them almost to the Instonian line. The last couple of minutes were spent in further Instonian attacks but to no avail. Well done to Bangor and some good lessons were learned by Instonians.
