Ballynahinch travelled to promoted Old Belvedere on Saturday with high hopes. They were coming off a bonus point home win over Young Munster and were able to field Ulster release Rob Baloucoune on the wing for only his second ever appearance in a Hinch jersey, the Irish international forming a potentially lethal wing duo with the equally rapid Aaron Sexton.

However, the optimism quickly evaporated in the face of injury disruption, poor weather conditions, questionable game management, defensive lapses and a massive Old Belvedere forward pack. Playing with the strong wind, in-form Bradley Luney opened the scoring from close range as Ballynahinch started brightly. The big Belvedere forwards then began to exert their influence on the game with giant prop Ryan McMahon touching down after a period of pressure. Ballynahinch failed to use the conditions properly with wayward kicking and set-piece struggles inviting pressure. They gave away a soft try when over-playing in the poor conditions lead to a turnover. This error was compounded by allowing a speculative kick to bounce and giving fullback Morgan Meredith the opportunity to hack through and win the race to the line for an opportunist try.

Just before the break the away side scored a fine first phase try with Mark Best hitting the ball up from a lineout and offloading to Pierce Crowe who accelerated over the line with an impressive finish. This gave them something to cling to despite turning around into the wind two points behind. Early in the second half Bryn Ward exploded off the back of an attacking scrum and burst through two tackles before offloading out of a third to Luney for another fine try. This sent Ballynahinch back into the lead but they concede a soft try moments later when failing to defend the back of a ruck to concede the lead again and the rest of the match was largely forgettable.

Injuries disrupted the rhythm of the side – at one stage flanker Zack McCall was at hooker while replacement hooker Josh Hanlon was at inside centre. Discipline was also an issue as the Belvedere forwards turned the screw with the help of the conditions, allowing them to kick two penalties and widen the gap to ten points. Deep in injury time Ballynahinch attempted to run from deep in an effort to grab a score and two bonus points but an intercept saw Belvedere seal the match with a bonus point try of their own.

Ballynahinch 1-20
Matthew Burke, Claytan Milligan, Joe Mawhinney, Declan Horrox, Ryan Connolly, Bradley Luney, Zack McCall, Bryn Ward, Chris Gibson, James Humphreys, Aaron Sexton, Mark Best, Pierce Crowe, Aaron Sexton, Conor Rankin, Josh Hanlon, John Dickson, Kyle Gill, Peter Heasley, Paul Kerr, Ethan Graham

Club Notes

The 2nd XV passed another big test vs Instonians as they mastered the conditions to overturn a ten point half time deficit and move to the top of the league ahead of the crunch Junior Cup QF at home vs Portadown on Saturday.

Youth matches were disrupted by the weather but there was a win for the U16 boys and another promising performance from the U18 girls in the games which survived Storm Amy.

Photo Credit - John Dickson