First XV Rugby - Friends School Lisburn

Final Score: Ballyclare 26 Friends 10

Ballyclare travelled to Lisburn on Saturday 1 st December, keen to put a series of poor performances behind them.

Ballyclare certainly seemed on top early on, and after only a few minutes back-rowers Ryan Tweed and Fabian Beickhorasani combined superbly in the middle of the park to send Tweed in under the posts. This was converted by Smith.

Ballyclare continued to pressure after this and were rewarded, when wing Jim Neill was sent through on an overlap after some good handling from the outside backs. After a period of scrappy play, Ballyclare captain Paddy Irvine looked to have scored a try in the corner, however this was conclusive and as a result an attacking scrum was awarded. A few phases later Jim again showed his pace and strength to break through the Friends defence and score. Smith again converted. The Friends restart failed to go 10metres and from the scrum in the middle of the pitch, Jim got his 3 rd, skilfully side stepping the fullback to score only seconds after his last! Rob Smith again converted leaving the score 26 - 0.

Towards the end of the 1 st half, Friends began to put on some pressure themselves, and after some good defensive work an error by Ballyclare allowed Friends in round the pillar. This try went unconverted.

Ballyclare began the 2 nd half slowly, playing with a job-done mentality. Despite a fairly even 2 nd half, when Ballyclare did at times look dangerous Friends were the only side to score, after they collected a wayward clearance kick and ran it in. This signalled the end of the game and a 26-10 win.

In all an improvement over the last few weeks, but further improvements still need to be made in the run-up to the Cup.