Ballymena travelled to Armagh with a much changed side from the team beaten by Ballynahinch the previous week and have out half Robbie Coleman, who was immaculate off the tee, to thank for their impressive victory.
Armagh opened the scoring after Ballymena were penalised for being offside and their inside centre kicked an early penalty. 3-0 armagh
Ballymena responded well and took the game to Armagh. After driving into the opposition 22, Ballymena got their reward when Timmy Carson barged his way over from close range. Out half Coleman added the extras. 7-3 Ballymena
What followed was some brilliant interplay from the Ballymena backline and Ben Goodfellow made a break down the left hand side, his pass unfortunately didn’t go to hand but Peter Munce was alert to hack through the loose ball and race through to score. Coleman added the simple conversion. 14-3 Ballymena
Armagh went into the game top of the table and they showed why with a score of their own shortly after. Following a penalty against Ballymena they kicked to the corner and scored a maul try. Conversion missed to leave the score 14- 8 to Ballymena.
Ballymena to their credit responded almost immediately. Again after a series of phases, they found themselves camped in the armagh 22 and again the pressure told as the excellent Jonny Browne scored from close range. The metronomic Coleman added the extra to stretch Ballymena’s lead to 21-8
The tit for tat nature of the game continued as due to an injury, Ballymena were temporarily down to 14 men and Armagh scored a pick and go try right on half time. Conversion added for a half time score of 21-15.
Almost immediately from the restart Armagh infringed and Coleman made no mistake in adding the three points. 24-15 Ballymena
Soon after Ballymena lost Daniel Hull to injury to add to Scott Agnew having to be withdrawn in the first half. As a result the remaining scrums were uncontested but Ballymena had to play the remainder of the game with 14 men. Armagh now hit their purple patch and scored a maul try shortly after. The conversion was missed but armagh were back within a score.24-20
The lead changed hands again soon after as after initially defending another maul well, Ballymena were hit by the sucker punch as the Armagh replacement back rower broke off and ran in to score. Conversion added and Armagh took the lead for the first time since the early minutes. 24-27 Armagh
The character of this Ballymena side can never be questioned as having given up a 9 point lead plus being down a man, lesser teams would have faded away. However, outhalf Coleman showed he was not just a reliable kicker and he made a half break in the midfield and offloaded to Dean Millar who showed excellent handling skills to pass to Eoin Ritson, who beat the covering defence to score in the corner. Again Coleman made the difficult conversion to take the score to 31-27 to Ballymena.
What followed was a series of full blown attacks from both sides, met with equally impressive defence. After a series of phases Ballymena earned a penalty close to the left hand touchline. Captain Chris Smyth pointed to the posts and outhalf Coleman duely obliged and added the 3 points. 34-27 Ballymena
This left 10 mins left for Armagh to push for the converted try to draw level but Ballymena defended resolutely. As the clock ticked past 80 mins Armagh had multiple phases on Ballymena’s line but a knock on at the ruck handed victory to a delighted Ballymena side.
Whilst it was a brilliant performance from the whole Ballymena side the man of the match was clear as Robbie Coleman was six out of six off the tee that was ultimately the difference on the day. The Palace Grounds is never an easy place to come and the youthful Ballymena side can take great confidence from this victory.
The games do not get any easier however as they welcome Ballynahinch to Eaton Park on Saturday in the Junior Cup quarter final, in what is sure to be another close encounter.
