After the hockey at Stormont, I diced with the traffic and remnants of the previous night’s flooding to arrive at Osborne, midway through the 1st half of RBAI’s Schools Friendly fixture against Ballymena Academy.
When I arrived, the score was 5-5. Inst’s try was scored by Blake McClean and Ballymena’s by Daniel Vercoe-Rodgers.
After 25 minutes a Ballymena rolling maul was driven over for Reece Williamson to score. Robbie Coleman’s conversion moved Ballymena out to 12-5.
Inst responded and James Kerr found space on the left to break the Ballymena defence to slide in for a try, to reduce the deficit to 10-12, after 34 minutes. Ballymena had the last say of the 1st half, when Coleman’s penalty goal put Ballymena up 15-10, at the break.
A 40th minute Reuben Allen try for Ballymena was cancelled out by a 2nd McClean try, to leave Ballymena leading 20-15. Coleman’s 58th minute penalty goal nudged Ballymena out to 23-15.
In the final moments Ben Neeley’s try gave Ballymena a deserved 28-15 victory, at Osborne, no easy feat!
Match Gallery
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