With a plethora of Junior Club Finals and Women’s AIL Cup Finals our coverage of the AIL 1B hasn’t been what we would have hoped.
It’s been a couple of rounds since we had a good look at this competition and it’s been Ulster club, Ballynahinch, and Leinster outfits, Naas and St Mary’s College, that have been leading the way with two win’s apiece. Naas doing particularly well to bang out two big wins on the road.
The results can be viewed by clicking below.
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| BALLYNAHINCH | 34 | 27 | OLD BELVEDERE |
| BANBRIDGE | 21 | 42 | NAAS |
| MALONE | 16 | 7 | CITY OF ARMAGH |
| OLD WESLEY | 29 | 13 | BUCCANEERS |
| ST MARY’S COLLEGE | 74 | 15 | BALLYMENA |
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| BALLYMENA | 24 | 47 | NAAS |
| BUCCANEERS | 20 | 24 | BANBRIDGE |
| CITY OF ARMAGH | 19 | 27 | BALLYNAHINCH |
| OLD BELVEDERE | 30 | 24 | OLD WESLEY |
| ST MARY’S COLLEGE | 38 | 36 | MALONE |
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This has left the league, going into the final week, as follows.
| Team | P | W | D | PD | TB | PTS |
| Ballynahinch | 17 | 11 | 1 | 50 | 6 | 52 |
| Old Wesley | 17 | 10 | 1 | 96 | 7 | 49 |
| Naas | 17 | 9 | 1 | 62 | 10 | 48 |
| Malone | 17 | 9 | 0 | 51 | 9 | 45 |
| St Mary’s College | 17 | 9 | 0 | 40 | 9 | 45 |
| Old Belvedere | 17 | 8 | 1 | 14 | 10 | 44 |
| Banbridge | 17 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 10 | 42 |
| City of Armagh | 17 | 8 | 2 | -1 | 6 | 42 |
| Buccaneers | 17 | 6 | 0 | -53 | 12 | 36 |
| Ballymena | 17 | 4 | 0 | -259 | 5 | 21 |
| Totals | 170 | 82 | 6 | 0 | 46 | 424 |
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[accordion title=”View our Previous Prediction!” load=”hide”]We like our stats here on The Front Row Union and after Week 15 we predicted the following finish.
 AIL 1B PREDICTED FINISH |
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| Team | % Current Form | %Home Form | %Away Form | Predicted Pts |
| Ballynahinch | 72% | 73% | 40% | 52 |
| Old Wesley | 60% | 46% | 68% | 51 |
| City of Armagh | 68% | 73% | 37% | 51 |
| Malone | 44% | 69% | 38% | 47 |
| Naas | 44% | 60% | 40% | 45 |
| Old Belvedere | 64% | 73% | 23% | 45 |
| Banbridge | 44% | 57% | 43% | 44 |
| Buccaneers | 64% | 53% | 40% | 43 |
| St Mary’s College | 40% | 80% | 18% | 42 |
| Ballymena | 32% | 46% | 13% | 26 |
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Ballynahinch are in charge of their own destiny with a win ensuring them a top of the table finish. In fact they need three points, so a high scoring draw, picking up a try bonus point, would do. However I’m sure they are only considering a win. 😉
Old Wesley and Naas will be going all out for bonus point wins, against Armagh and Buccaneers respectively, should there be any slip ups at Ballymacarn Park. Armagh have struggled of late but are secure in the league and Buccs are already consigned to a second from bottom finish and play offs.
While Hinch, would be favourites to retain top spot they, perhaps, face the most difficult match as their opponents St Mary’s, alongside Malone, still have a sniff of a top two finish should Old Wesley and Naas slip up. For St Mary’s it’s a bonus point win or bust so it should be a lively enough game.
This weekend’s fixtures are as follows.
| Ballynahinch | – | St Mary’s College |
| Banbridge | – | Old Belvedere |
| Malone | – | Ballymena |
| Naas | – | Buccaneers |
| Old Wesley | – | City of Armagh |
AIL 1B Leading points scorers in association with Samurai Rugby Gear
Old Wesley and Naas will also be fighting it out to see who tops the Leading Points Scorer table with Peter Osborne (Naas) two points ahead of Rory Stynes (Old Wesley) as we go into the last round of fixtures.
| PLAYER | CLUB | T | C | P | DG | TOT |
| Peter Osborne | Naas | 5 | 31 | 23 | 0 | 156 |
| Rory Stynes | Old Wesley | 3 | 32 | 25 | 0 | 154 |
| Tim Small | Ballymena | 2 | 24 | 23 | 0 | 127 |
| Steve Crosbie | Old Belvedere | 3 | 29 | 18 | 0 | 127 |
| Luke Carty | Buccaneers | 0 | 27 | 20 | 0 | 114 |
| Conor Dean | St Mary’s College | 2 | 18 | 12 | 0 | 82 |
| Cormac Fox | City of Armagh | 0 | 14 | 17 | 0 | 79 |
| Adam Doherty | Banbridge | 0 | 18 | 14 | 0 | 78 |
| Rory Campbell | Malone | 4 | 11 | 11 | 0 | 75 |
| Jack Keating | Old Belvedere | 13 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 65 |
| Richard Reaney | Ballynahinch | 3 | 6 | 9 | 0 | 54 |
We had to extend the table to include, league leaders, Ballynahinch’s leading points scorer, Richard Reaney, who lags 100 points behind the top two in this category. Hinch have used three kickers throughout the competition but their conversion rate (conversions/tries) is the second lowest in the league at 57.8%.
Hinch, however have won more games than anyone else in the competition, to date, which would point towards their ability to find a way to win being more important than banging over every kickable chance?
AIL 1B Leading try scorers in association with Samurai Rugby Gear
I think we can say that the competition for leading try scorer is a done deal for this season with Jack Keating (Old Belvedere) five tries clear of the chasing pack with an impressive 13 tries after Week 17.
| Player | Club | Tries |
| Jack Keating | Old Belvedere | 13 |
| Ross Adair | Ballynahinch | 8 |
| Peter Cromie | Banbridge | 8 |
| Andrew Ellis | Naas | 8 |
| Fionn Higgins | Naas | 8 |
| Rhys O’Donnell | Ballynahinch | 7 |
| Conor Field | Banbridge | 7 |
| Aaron Cairns | Ballynahinch | 6 |
| Shane Layden | Buccaneers | 6 |
| Peter Hastie | Naas | 6 |
| Paul Harte | Old Wesley | 6 |
| Hugo Conway | St Mary’s College | 6 |
Two of the top three sides, Ballynahinch and Naas, have three players each in the top four totals, which gives us the opportunity of a shout out for FRU Favourite Ross Adair (Hinch) who didn’t join the AIL action until week 7. Adair’s eight tries over ten rounds have helped push the Ballymacarn outfit to top of the table.
We’ll have a full breakdown of all the teams individual scorers after the final round.
