\nscoring opportunity when Alan McCluggage pushed a penalty attempt wide.
\nHowever following some pressure on the Gannon line the visitors won a five
\nmetre scrum. An unfortunate mix-up gave McCluggage the opportunity to dive
\nover for a try.
\n5 \u2013 0
\nA fine run from David Egner put Gannon on the front foot and following good
\nwork from the backs Darren Simpson went over for a try that John McGuckin
\nconverted after fifteen minutes.
\n5 \u2013 7
\nBallymena took the lead again but precursor to the score gave further debate
\nto the recent controversy surrounding Einstein\u2019s theory.
\n
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.intouchrugby.com\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/06\/eurosports.jpg\" "\\"Click")
<\/a>\nAs he moved to
\nintercept a pass off a ruck the Ballymena No6 must have exceeded the speed
\nof light. Alas no whistle and E=MC2 proved to be irrelevant as he quickly
\npassed the ball to Michael Smith who ran over for a try that McCluggage
\nconverted.
\n12 \u2013 7
\nPlaying with the wind in the second half Dungannon were full of confidence
\nand got first pints on the board with a John McGuckin penalty on fifty-five
\nminutes.
\n12 \u2013 10
\nBallymena then showed what could be achieved when they shipped the ball out
\nwide before Chris Allen galloped over for the try converted by McCluggage on
\nthe hour mark.
\n19 \u2013 10
\nThe Dungannon backs showed they could take their chances when Chris Swann
\nfielded a high kick and broke through the Ballymena defence to send Stuart
\nLester away for a try on the right.
\n19 \u2013 15
\nDungannon were now creating opportunities but some wrong options and some
\ncrowding out by Ballymena kept them a bay. Indeed it was the Braidmen who
\nscored next when Alan McCluggage kicked a penalty against the breeze.
\n22 \u2013 15
\nFollowing a penetrating run from Callum Threlfall assisted by Richard Homes
\nDungannon were stopped five metres short of the line. Unfortunately young
\nBallymena hooker John Andrew was hurt in the tackle and there followed a
\nlengthy delay as John was attended by medical staff and subsequently taken
\nto hospital. Post game reports were good, John was released from hospital
\nsomewhat sore but with no long term damage.
\nThis setback spurred Ballymena who battled their way up field for Connor
\nSmith to score.
\n27 \u2013 15
\nDungannon with Steven Sinnamon and Phil Whyte to the fore went on the
\noffensive and then thanks to a passing movement involving McGuckin,
\nThrelfall and Simpson Stuart Lester went through for his second try of the
\ngame.
\n27 \u2013 20
\nAlas that was the last move of the game and Dungannon were left lamenting
\nwhat might have been. <\/p>\n
Team: Christopher Swann. Darren Simpson, Stuart Lester, Gareth McGonigle,
\nDavid Egner. John McGuckin, Michael Kirkwood. Adam Lockhart, Phil Whyte,
\nSteven Sinnamon. Rodney Blair, Paul McCarroll. Richard Holmes (Captain),
\nCallum Threlfall, Robin McCleary
\nReferee: David McAllister
\nTries: Darren Simpson & Stuart Lester (2)
\nConversions: John McGuckin
\nPenalties: John McGuckin <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Against the odds Ballymena won an entertaining 2nd XV League game scoring their last try after they were reduced to thirteen men. Dungannon started well playing against the wind but Ballymena had the first scoring opportunity when Alan McCluggage pushed a penalty attempt wide. However following some pressure on the Gannon line the visitors won […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,5],"tags":[6557,7009,17197,4719,17190,4276,3959,4280,4281],"class_list":["post-16415","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ballymena","category-dungannon","tag-6557","tag-7009","tag-ballymena","tag-club","tag-dungannon","tag-ii","tag-rugby","tag-v","tag-xv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intouchrugby.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16415","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intouchrugby.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intouchrugby.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intouchrugby.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intouchrugby.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16415"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.intouchrugby.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16415\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16416,"href":"https:\/\/www.intouchrugby.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16415\/revisions\/16416"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intouchrugby.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16415"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intouchrugby.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16415"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intouchrugby.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16415"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}