Ballymena went into Saturday’s rearranged game with Queen’s University struggling with illness and injury. Head coach Andy Hughes was unsure of the final squad makeup until the morning of the game.
Queen’s opened the scoring early on when their right winger mnaged to round the defence, with the home looking like they had the situation under control.
Ballymena responded quickly and after a patient, multi phase build up, Callum Patterson showed his strength to overpower a would be tackler on his way to the line.
Simon McWhirter was then instrumental in setting up Ballymena’s second try. Ross McKay put McWhirter through a gap and the prop showed a clean pair of heels along with fine composure to beat the full back and offload to Josh Drain. Drain finished under the posts to give Ballymena the lead at 12-7.
Queen’s added a further try before half time to give them a 14-12 lead af the interval.
In the second half, Ballymena were forced to play into a strong breeze and struggled to gain territory in the opposition half.
Ballymena set piece was not as reliable as normal, with so many last minute changes to the forward pack and couldn’t get any momentum as a result.
Queen’s added two further tries from lineout mauls in the second half to secure the bonus point win with a final margin of 26-12.
The two sides face each other again this coming Saturday at Dub Lane. Andy Hughes will be hoping to have a fuller deck to choose from with anticipated returns for those out with illness.
Team:
Forsythe, Ferguson, McWhirter, P. Browne, Mitchell, Glass, McKeeman, Lamont, Robson, McKay, Montgomery, S. Millar, Patterson, D. Millar, Drain
Reps:
Taggart, Mattison, Howe, P. Hargy, Weerarathne
