Ballynahinch power to glory in cup final

Ballynahinch power to glory in cup final

7 May 2025

BALLYNAHINCH ended the season in style with a seven-try demolition of Dungannon at Kingspan Stadium to bring the Senior Cup back to the Ballymacarn Park trophy cabinet.

The Tyrone outfit had not lost since before Christmas and recently gained promotion to AIL 2A, but had no answer to the power, pace and superior skillset of their high flying AIL 1A opponents.

The tone was set in the first minute when the returning Aaron Sexton cruised in from 40 metres after a superb short side move.

Despite an excellent Dungannon penalty goal from the reliable Ben McCaughey, Ballynahinch forged ahead with a catch-and-drive try from hooker Claytan Milligan and a Conor Rankin penalty before the end of the first quarter. 

Dungannon had their best period of the match during a scoreless second quarter, enjoying some possession and territory without being any real threat.

Ballynahinch failed to take advantage of at least three try-scoring opportunities but had complete control at the set-piece as the sides turned around. 

This domination produced one-way traffic in the second half as Ballynahinch turned the screw with five converted tries.

Zack McCall ran an excellent support line to finish off a brilliant passage of play before Milligan scored his second from another line-out drive with 15 minutes to go.

This was the cue for Ballynahinch to cut loose, with another coast-to-coast move putting replacement winger Rory Fulton over for the fifth try and McCall getting his second after running another excellent support line for the sixth.

George Pringle scored the seventh and final try with the last action of the match when he ran on to a superb backhanded offload from replacement centre Matthew Booth to cruise under the posts, affording Rankin an 

easy conversion to bring up 50 points and cap a fine kicking display.

Minutes later skipper Bradley Luney lifted the Cup to the cheers of the large travelling support.

For a certain cohort of the Ballynahinch members this was a very sweet victory as Ballynahinch used the Dungannon playbook from the late 1990s and early 2000s to coast to victory.

Set-piece domination, softening up the opposition with forward power and then adding a bit of sparkle to the scoreboard in the final quarter was the Dungannon way and they showed no mercy to Ballynahinch on many occasions in the early years of senior rugby at Ballymacarn Park.

The roles have been reversed over the past 15 years and while it is great to see Dungannon on their way back up the league pyramid, the Ballynahinch support were delighted to cement their league ranking with another Senior Cup.

The coaching team and wider squad will now rest up for a few weeks before the club tour to Boston in late June.

They can reflect on another season of consolidation which briefly looked like it might end in a run at the AIL 1A title before the traditional league powers took control and will know that they must not take anything for granted as the new season rolls around.