‘Hinch storm into cup final

‘Hinch storm into cup final

22 January 2020

BALLYNAHINCH booked their place in the Senior Cup final with victory over a very game Dungannon outfit, who were clearly fired up for the occasion.

Brian McLaughlin was deprived of most of his Ulster contingent and therefore made a number of changes with starts for Conor Piper in the front row, Tom Martin in the back row and George Pringle on the wing. Greg Hutley also came in at out-half and took on the kicking duties.

The home side started superbly, snapping into tackles and looking dangerous with ball in hand. Aaron Cairns continued his excellent try-scoring form, running a superb line and cutting through under the posts for Hutley to convert.

Ryan Wilson then finished a superb counter attack led by Hutley and full back Paddy Wright to take the locals into a 12-0 lead after 15 minutes and it looked like a very comfortable victory was on the cards.

However, Dungannon had clearly not read the and upped their physicality, carrying hard from deep and attacking the fringes of the rucks.

Passive Ballynahinch defence allowed their hooker to cruise in untouched under the posts after taking a fine offload from his second row.

Worse was to come when more missed tackles sent Dungannon into the break with a 14-12 lead following a second converted try.

Ballynahinch visibly upped the tempo in the third quarter and put the game to bed with an 18-point scoring burst.

They went through the phases in the Dungannon 22 and Bradley Luney capped a fine display by bursting through for a score to take his side into the lead.

Two Hutley penalties followed as Dungannon infringed under severe pressure to make the score 25-14 and when replacement winger Ronan Patterson ran a beautiful line to score in the opposite corner Ballynahinch looked home and dry at 30-14. 

They allowed Dungannon a glimpse of a comeback by taking their foot off the pedal again and Dungannon scored a breakout try and conversion to take them within nine points, but the result was never in question.

The Ballynahinch faithful can look forward to another trip to Kingspan for the final against familiar foes City of Armagh on Friday, March 6.

Ballynahinch (1-20): Ben Cullen, Conor Piper, Jonny Blair, Bradley Luney, John Donnan, Tom Martin, Olly Loughead, Callum Irvine, Rhys O’Donnell, Greg Hutley, Aaron Cairns, Ryan Wilson, Robin Harte, George Pringle, Paddy Wright, David Cooper, Nacho Caldera, Kelvin Hamilton, Ronan Patterson, Ben McMullan.

Ballynahinch 30

Dungannon 21

SENIOR CUP SEMI-FINAL