Ballynahinch dominated the early exchanges driving the young Ulster side deep into their half of the field. The home pack set a strong platform for scrum half Andrew Cairns to off load to his forwards, and in the 7th minute loose head prop Chris Stevenson crashed over for the opening score just left of the posts. Harry McAleese added the extras to take the Hinch into a 7-0 lead.
Ulster responded with some strong running from centres Stuart Olding and Chris Farrell. It was important for the 20’s side to get quick ball and scrum half Conor Spence gave excellent service to John Crighton at fly half.
In the 18th minute Ulster had forced play into the Hinch 22. The home side knocked on at a lineout and the scrum ball was flashed wide where Stuart Olding showed lovely skills, with a neat swerve of his hips, he slipped past the Hinch defence to race in under the posts. He added the extras to tie the score at 7 points apiece.
Olding failed to convert two penalty goal attempts the first in the 25th minute, and again in the 30th minute. However, the young Ulster backs always threatened to cut loose and when Conor Spence looked as if he had found a gap in the 37th minute referee Michael Black spotted a pull on a Hinch jersey and the opportunity for a second try was missed.
Towards the end of the first half the Hinch managed to gain some ground. In the 39th minute a lovely break by Harry McAleese on halfway was continued at pace by Aaron Ferris only to be halted by an excellent tackle by fullback Charlie Simpson. As the home side flooded into the Ulster 22 the visitors tried to organise their defence but went off their feet in front of the posts. McAleese stepped up to convert the penalty to take the Hinch into a 10-7 halftime lead.
The second half became rather scrappy with the more experienced Hinch pack beginning to gain an advantage taking control with a powerful driving game. At scrum time the Hinch side were causing Ulster some problems and in the 59th minute a
penalty try was awarded for persistent infringements in the scrum in front of the Ulster posts. McAleese added the extras to increase the Hinch lead to 17-7.
In the 70th minute a long period of pressure in the Ulster 22 created room for Michael Graham, the Hinch number 8 did well to step past a couple of Ulster tackles to cross for the third home try. McAleese converted to take the Hinch 24-7 clear.
Hinch winger Aaron Ferris picked up a loose ball in the 72nd minute and fed inside to fullback David Nicholson who sprinted down the wing from halfway to score in the left hand corner. McAleese converted to take the Hinch 31-7 clear.Ulster heads had dropped, and when they tried to counter from the restart a loose ball was snapped up by James Thompson who sprinted in under the posts with McAleese converting to bring the home tally to 38pts.
Ulster managed to score a consolation try in the 77th minute, it was their first meaningful attack in the second half with the forwards driving play deep into the Hinch 22. Spence moved play left and took the ball through a couple of phases until flanker Neil Faloon charged for the line to score. Rory Scholes converted well from out wide to complete the scoring the Hinch too strong on this occasion winning 38-14.
Afterwards coach Ulster U20 Derek Suffern said, “That was an excellent work out for both teams, it was a game played with great pace and both sides will learn from it. Ulster had their good spells with some decent continuity play, but all credit to the Hinch boys they defended well and made life difficult for us. We will take a lot from our first half play in particular, and were unlucky to turn round 3 points down at the interval.”“A number of players have put their hands up for selection over these warm-up games and we now look forward to a tough inter-provincial championship in the weeks ahead.”
