Instonians 2’s 3 Ballynahinch 3’s 10
Match Report for 2 April.
Jonny Murdock reports from Shaw’s Bridge.
Ballynahinch 3’s made the relatively short trip to play Instonians 2’s in what was to be an extremely tight league match at Shaw’s Bridge. With Instonians 1st XV without a game on Saturday, Hinch knew that it would be a heavily boosted 2nd XV that ran out against them in Belfast and Hinch had to quickly leave behind their Crawford cup final victory as the big Belfast side came out on a charge as they also compete for the League title.
Hinch enjoyed most of the possession during the first half with Andy Glenn, Dave Gunson and Stuart Elwood putting in the hard graft and making great strides into the Inst half. However, the County Down side couldn’t seem to find that final pass to break the scoring deadlock. Some early lapses in concentration from the visitors resulted in the Shaw’s Bridge side kicking a penalty and ending the first half with a 3-0 lead.
HT – Inst 2’s 3 Hinch 3’s 0.
The Ballymacarn men received a stern talking to from Club stalwart and team manager, Chris Stevenson, at the break and he imbued the belief in the quality of their team that Hinch 3s had shown for the Crawford Cup final. The County Down side came out for the second half as a different team that started the match, knowing that with the ball in hand, they could put points on the ‘enhanced’ Belfast team.
Hinch started the second half in a fierce mood and the strong running backline of Mike Carson, Jordan Graham and Chris Kirk started to cause Inst trouble, making powerful runs and putting the home side very much on the back foot.
This 2nd half pressure finally paid off as David Steele crashed over the Inst line to take the score to 5-3 in favour of the men from County Down. The conversion drifted wide.
Hinch continued to build on this slim lead and great work from the Hinch back row managed to alleviate pressure from within their own half. From the resulting lineout, Hinch remained focused and the power of the Hinch men was too much for the Shaw’s Bridge men to withstand.
Keith Dickson managed to wrangle his way over the line to give some breathing space to the men in Green and see the score stretched to 10-3. Hinch continued to fight hard to hold on to this lead, to give them a much deserved win and keep themselves very much in contention for the Junior 1 league title with three games left.
Final Score: Inst 2’s 3 Hinch 3’s 10.
