Club Men: Ballyclare 13 Dromore 17 (URC D1)

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by

John McMurtry

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Dromore spoiled the party at The Cloughan on Saturday afternoon with the visitors dogging out a 13 – 17 win against title favourites Ballyclare in an Ulster Rugby Championship Division 1 match.

In the round of last league matches for the season, the defeat for Ballyclare allowed Instonians to leapfrog the East Antrim side and claim the league.

Ballyclare started brightly with claiming an early unconverted try. In a dominant opening quarter the home side extended their lead to 8 – 0 with a penalty from .

However, Dromore weren’t there to make up the numbers and they started to work their way back into the game, taking on the Ballyclare forwards and taking a bit of the pace out of the game. The tactics paid dividends and the visitors turned round with an 8 – 9 lead thanks to three second quarter penalties from the reliable boot of .

Dromore grabbed at try, through shortly after the restart to push the score along to 8 – 14 and setting the scene for a Ballyclare onslaught.

Unfortunately, as they did against Instonians, Ballyclare tried to punch through the middle of the park, using their forwards, rather than taking chances and spinning it wide and Dromore were able to repel their attacks until the closing ten minutes when squeezed over in the corner to take the score to 13 – 14.

Despite going a man down for the closing minutes, Dromore were able to regroup and went down the field for Steenson to add his fourth penalty to open their lead to four points. the visitors were able to hold on reasonably comfortably in the closing minutes to claim the match.

Final score: Ballyclare 13 Dromore 17. 

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