Senior Cup final
Ballynahinch 19
Instonians 14
Junior Cup final
Ballynahinch II 14
Enniskillen 48
By James Kirk
A LARGE Ballynahinch travelling support made their way to Affidea Stadium on Saturday, confident that they would have some silverware to accompany them back to Ballymacarn Park as the in-form second 15 faced junior stalwarts Enniskillen in the Junior Cup final before the first 15 side featured in the showpiece Senior Cup final against Instonians.
The seconds went into their final unbeaten so far this season, having blazed a trail through the league and picked off some notable scalps in the cup. However, they were uncharacteristically sloppy in possession and had no answer to a well-drilled Enniskillen side who punished them at every opportunity. They were briefly in the game around the half-hour mark when hooker Chris Francis powered over following a period of sustained pressure, but failed to take advantage of an Enniskillen yellow and conceded crucial tries either side of the break to give themselves a mountain to climb.
Kyle Gill scored a fine individual try towards the end, but Enniskillen had the final word with a sixth try to give the scoreboard a lopsided look. There is still much to play for this season for this young Ballynahinch side, and they will learn plenty from this experience as they seek to defend the Towns Cup and press home their advantage in the league.
The Senior Cup final proved to be an excellent advert for club rugby with a physical, closely-contested match, giving supporters of both sides plenty to cheer. Instonians took an early lead with recent Ulster call-up Bradley MacNamara showing plenty of pace to take advantage of a favourable bounce and race over the line.
Ballynahinch showed all their class across the remainder of the first half as they began to win the physical battle, eventually sucking in the Instonians defence to allow out-half James Humphreys to score almost unopposed and then taking the lead before the break when Aaron Sexton shredded the cover defence before offloading to Matthew Booth for the try.
Ballynahinch continued to turn the screw in the third quarter with two superb Conor Rankin penalties taking them two scores ahead as they kept their opponents at arm’s length. However, the game came to life with a second Instonians try, setting up a grandstand finish.
Ballynahinch used all their big game experience to dominate the closing exchanges, and although electric replacement Pierce Crowe had a try denied by a superb cover tackle, Rankin knocked over a last-minute penalty to put the game beyond doubt and install the Senior Cup back into the trophy cabinet at Ballymacarn Park.
To read the digital edition, download the Mourne Observer app – for apple click here – for android click here
