ULSTER SENIOR CUP
Clogher Valley 35 Ballymena 14
FOR the third time in as many seasons Clogher Valley defeated Ballymena this time in the early stages of the Ulster Senior Cup. The last two seasons it was in the final of the Senior Shield but with both sides now being ranked in the top ten sides in Ulster this season it is the Senior Cup.
Tries from Aaron Crawford, Callum Smyton, Alex Howe, Taine Haire and Jake Woods, along with four David Maxwell conversions and one from Paul Armstrong ensured Stephen Bothwell’s men enjoyed a less taxing day at the office than anticipated, and the head coach was pleased with that aspect of the encounter.
“We didn’t need it to be a real tester today,” he observed. “It’s obviously our first day and we played different boys – two different sets of half-backs in the first half-second half – we made changes, a young boy from the 18s came in at centre for a wee while, so we’re delighted.
“Of course, there’s loads of things to work on but delighted where we ended up.”
On a cold miserable afternoon the Valley stuck to their game plan and played some attractive running rugby. Despite the wet weather and other distractions a very large crowd turned out to watch the season opener.
The Valley opened up with a very early try. A long kick from Paul Armstrong was fielded by the visiting full-back but before he could clear Jake Woods the left winger caught him to set up a promising situation. After a powerful scrum and several pick and goes Aaron Crawford, who put in a great shift throughout, crashed over for the opening try duly goaled by David Maxwell.
Ballymena then had a good patch with some great defensive work keeping them at bay.
An attempted box kick was charged down by Callum Smyton who gathered the loose ball and raced in from forty metres for the second try with David Maxwell adding the extras.
A feature of the first half was the performance of scrumhalf Alex Howe. He sniped at and harassed the Ballymena defence eventually getting just reward when he took a quick penalty and raced in for the third try and the man of the match award to boot. David Maxwell again obliged with the extras.
As the match entered the second twenty Ballymena did cross for a deserved try and conversion to reduce the arrears to fourteen points.
Almost ten minutes later the Valley struck again. Following a Jake Woods charge down the ball was retained and spread through the hands for winger Taine Haire to score in the corner. David Maxwell nailed the touchline conversion to bring the Valley tally to twenty eight points. Just before the break Ballymena crossed again, despite some great defensive work by Josh Kyle, followed by the conversion leaving the score 28-14 at the interval.
The second period saw both coaches make multiple changes as play unfolded. For the Valley there would be debuts for Thomas Barnett and Daniel Loane.
Again regardless of changes the set scrum was a great source of possession with Ballymena retreating on most occasions. From one such situation Callum Smyton broke blind linking with Matthew Bothwell who put Jake Woods away on a thirty metre dash to the line for a great try. Just reward for Jake capping off a fine outing and on this occasion Paul Armstrong added the conversion.
The remainder of the game became a bit of a mid-field battle with both sides adapting to the changes. Neither side really threatened and as the gloom descended over the Cran the game came to a conclusion with no further score in the second period.
Bothwell was pleased with his side’s overall performance and game management, even at this early stage of the season.
“We played sensibly in the first half,” he acknowledged. “There was a wee wind advantage and we put the ball on them, put pressure on them, got mistakes out of them and scored.
“We were 21 points up in about 20 minutes but they scored twice from our mistakes and we ended up on their line for the last 10 minutes [of the first half] but weren’t clinical enough.
“In the second half we scored a nice try with some nice clinical rugby and they only got into our half once, so I’m delighted.”
Next week it’s off to Armagh the 1st XV in the Senior Cup while the 2nd XV open their league campaign against Armagh 2nd xv also at the Palace grounds and Bothwell knows a much tougher task lies in wait.