It was a mixed start to the youth season for the Ballymena teams, the Ballymena u18s got their season off to a winning start with an emphatic win over Ballymoney but the u14s and u16s were started slowly – both teams tasting defeat.
In the U18 game, the home team asserted themselves from the kick off with a great chase and turnover, the forwards carried through 3 phases before second row James Lynn found himself in space for a simple run in under the posts.
Ballymena continued to dominate, and pressure earned them a penalty close to the Ballymoney line; a tap and go caught the visitors napping and a deft offload by Timmy McNabney put hooker Ben Millar through for try number 2. The next try was made and delivered by the backs, a set piece move from a scrum put centre Alfie Logan in, James Orr continued his 100% kicking record to make the score 21-0.
Ballymena’s territorial dominance continued and number 8 Tyrece Dunlop found himself in the centre of the park within the opposition 22 and brushed of 2 tacklers to score under the posts.
Ballymoney hit back from the kick off, a series of errors from the home team presented a try scoring opportunity for the visitors which the gladly took, however Alfie Logan grabbed his second try on the stroke of half time to make the score 35-5 at the break.
The second half was a more scrappy affair with the home side frequently finding themselves on the wrong side of the referees whistle, however Tyrece Dunlop scored another solo effort and centre Harry Morgan finished of a lovely move to score in the corner during the second half.
Final score 47-5 to Ballymena.
Elsewhere the U14s were defeated by the visiting Ballymoney team 24-13 and the U16s lost by a score 17 points to 10.
