Ballymoney 1st XV travelled to Bangor for the opening league game of the season on a beautiful late summer’s afternoon hoping to reserve last Saturday’s defeat in Junior Cup to Dromore.
The Toon welcomed back coach Marty Irwin back into the side, Stephen McCleery and Joel McCluggage made their first league start with three debutants on the bench in Sam Brown, Jack Speer and Paddy Carson.
A large Bangor side, returning to C1 after AIL relegation, started strongly but Money weathered the early storm and opened the scoring on 8 minutes when Skipper Will Scott crashed over after several phases of possession in the home 22, Aaron Gervais converting.
Bangor opened their account on 15 when a catch and drive of a lineout gave them possession in the Toon 22 and they crossed over taking score to 7-5.
Matthew Pollock doubled the try count before half time as the Money pack had strong carries into the 22, drawing in the defence, giving Pollock the chance to dart below the posts and with Gervais converting leaving the halftime score 14-5 to the visitors.
Second half and following a fumble by Bangor inside the Money 22, Marty Irwin picked up and set towards the line supported by Paddy Carson and following several interchanges Carson opened his try account, now leading 19-5.
Shortly afterwards The Toon secured the elusive 4 try bonus point when a Bangor clearance was caught by majestic Irwin who again set off and offloaded to Matthew Bell who crossed over, now 24-5.
Ballymoney gifted Bangor a score and they worked to reduce the deficit, missed tackles let their winger in for an unconverted try but skipper Will Scott combined again with Irwin to score his second and fifth of the game and with Carson converting, an away day win was surely secured with the score now 31-10 with 20 minutes remaining.
With Toon attacking the Bangor winger gathered the ball deep in his 22, kicked through and gathered his own kick to score their third try. This lifted the home sides confidence as they pushed for what would seem a bonus point. They secured the bonus point with ten minutes remaining and the home support were elated with the renewed vigour their team were playing with as Ballymoney struggled to close the game out and with two minutes remaining Bangor score again, taking the score to 31-29 but the visitors held out and secured their bonus point and opening day victory.
Skipper Will Scott said after the game “Obviously delighted to start with a win but disappointed in the way a 21-point lead was cut down to 2. Bangor obviously are a quality side but I thought when we were good, we were very good, but we also cannot allow to let our foot off the gas when we were in the ascendancy. We take the positives from today and take the negatives and work on them at training this week as we have another difficult trip to Portadown next Saturday.
Thanks to our travelling support today, nice to hear the familiar voices cheering us on from the sidelines.”