UCD 10 Ballynahinch RFC 15
UBL Match Report for 2 April.
Richard Hart reports from the Belfield Bowl.
Ballynahinch travelled to Dublin on Saturday and got the better of title contenders UCD, winning a closely-fought Division 1A encounter 15-10 at the Belfield Bowl.
First half tries from backs Robin Harte and Chris Quinn inspired ‘Hinch to a vital win, which has them five points behind second-from-bottom Galwegians heading into the final round on 16th April against 5th placed Garryowen.
Hinch struggled with the poor weather conditions from the off, but soon fortified themselves and turned the difficult playing conditions to their benefit.
Sharp play from the motivated County Down back line saw them intercept two wayward Collidge passes as the home side tried to open up the play.
Ulster player Sam Windsor was a calming influence at 10 and put in a sublime cross field kick for Quinn to chase that saw the visitors press inside the UCD 5m line and be awarded a penalty for their troubles. Collidge defended the resulting line out well and Hinch knocked on over the line. The resultant scrum saw the students clear their lines and Hinch had a line out on the UCD 22.
Ulster’s Jonny Murphy threw an accurate ball into the lineout that was secured by John Donnan jumping at four and the forwards worked the ball through a couple of phases of play, before Aaron Cairns at scrum half opened up play and moved the ball to Windsor, who pulled the strings at out-half for ‘Hinch, a nice flat delivery releasing centre Robin Harte for the opening try 18 minutes under the posts for Windsor to convert.
Windsor’s opposite number, Ross Byrne, responded with a well-struck penalty and then set up his half-back partner Bobby Holland for a try. Holland crossed after a well-judged block, break and offload from former Ireland U-20 star Byrne.
However, ‘Hinch full-back Manihera Eden inspired a superb break that ended with winger Chris Quinn dotting down just before the interval, making it 12-10 to the Ulstermen.
A series of individual errors robbed UCD of decent possession and territory in the second half, with the County Down outfit always looking the hungrier side throughout the match and a penalty from Windsor, with little over ten minutes remaining, proved to be the match-winning score for ‘Hinch.
This was an impressive away performance for the Ballynahinch team against one of the top four sides in the league, especially after the result the students had put onto Hinch at Ballymacarn and shows just how tight the top run of club rugby in Ireland has been as a contest.
Derek Suffern’s charges can still mathematically avoid automatic relegation, however they need to hammer Garryowen on the last day and hope that ‘Wegians go down heavily at Cork Con. ‘Hinch have a -141 scoring difference compared to ‘Wegians’ -97.
Hope remains alive at Ballymacarn park and with a booked out pre-match lunch of some 180 patrons, a huge support turnout would greatly assist the Hinch players as they strive to move into the key 9th place and avoid the dreaded automatic relegation slot.
Ballynahinch RFC Team:
1. Jonny Simpson, 2. Jonny Murphy, 3. Craig Trenier, 4. John Donnan, 5. James Simpson, 6. Lorcan Dow, 7. Conor Joyce, 8. Mike Graham, 9. Aaron Cairns, 10. Sam Windsor, 11. Chris Quinn, 12. Jordan Grattan, 13. Robin Harte, 14. David Busby, 15. Mani Eden
Replacements:
16. Jonny Blair (P), 17. Ben Pentland (H), 18. Tommy Donnan, 19. Chris Gibson, 20. Davy Nicholson
