Bangor got the final underway, with swirling wind and persistent rain, and from the outset they looked to be already in gear, keeping Instonians camped inside their own half. Within 5 minutes, Bangor were within a few metres of the Instonians line. In their efforts to repel the attack, Instonians began to concede penalties. Choosing to kick for touch, Bangor kept the pressure on, looking for their first try. However, the robust defence held firm, albeit at the cost of further penalties. Eventually, Bangor opted for a kick for goal, but Mark Widdowson’s attempt was unsuccessful. From the drop-out, Bangor regained possession and started to move forward again, but another infringement by the Instonians hooker resulted in him receiving the first yellow card of the game.

Somehow over this opening spell, Bangor had failed to convert good possession and some promising chances. Instonians, by contrast, had weathered the attacks and despite being a man down, began to press forward. With 22 minutes gone, and with Instonians making their first foray into Bangor’s twenty two, they expertly exploited a gap in the Bangor defence to score on the left hand side. The tricky conversion was missed, but Instonians were now ahead by 0-5 with their first real attack of the game.
Both sides continued to trade possession and attacks, with Instonians mostly adopting their favoured kicking strategy. Given the wet and windy conditions, it is a credit to the Bangor players that they securely fielded these high balls, and prevented their opponents any opportunity to benefit from dropped or knocked-on balls. Bangor also used the boot of Ross McCloskey and Jason Morgan to pick off some good territorial gains. This, together with good following up by the forwards, once again kept play deep within Instonians half. Bangor were now in a hurry to get on the scoresheet and, having won an attacking line-out on the Instonians twenty two, were looking to take a quick throw to maintain their head of pressure. However, the Instonians full-back threw the ball off the pitch, earning him the second yellow card of the evening.

Although once again with the extra man advantage, Bangor were unable to make the difference count and, as the referee blew for half time, the score remained 0-5 to Instonians.

In contrast to the start of the first half, it was Instonians who looked the more sharp, with mistakes creeping into Bangor’s game. It was now Bangor who were conceding penalties and, after 7 minutes, this gave Instonians a kick at goal, but the effort was wide of the mark. Breathing a sigh of relief, Bangor re-grouped and began to play themselves back into attacking territory. Repeated drives by the forwards once again brought them within sight of the Instonians line. Finding themselves now in desperate measures, the Instonians response to this sustained pressure was to concede more penalties. With their line-out beginning to look less secure, Bangor chose to pick and go, ensuring possession and allowing them to push forward again. Thankfully, Bangor avoided the ‘goal-line fever’ approach and patiently built and reset their attacks. Eventually, after 27 minutes of the second half, Bangor produced a perfectly formed driving maul that the previously secure Instonians defence was unable to stop. In the melee of players that crashed over the line, it was Curtis Stewart who managed to get the ball down for Bangor’s try. With the scores now level at 5-5, the pressure was on Widdowson as he prepared for the conversion from out on the left hand side of the posts. To the delight of the Bangor spectators, the ball sailed through the posts to put Bangor ahead by 7-5.

With 13 minutes remaining, there was still plenty of time for either side to add to their score. As has been the case in recent games, Bangor have displayed maturity in situations like this, by denying their opposition any meaningful possession and avoiding unnecessary risks when they had the ball themselves. As the game entered the final 5 minutes, Bangor had another penalty opportunity, although it was quite a distance from the posts. Again, the sensible choice was to kick for goal. Although Widdowson’s kick drifted wide, another minute had been wiped from the clock, and Bangor regained possession from the resulting Instonians drop-out.

However, in games as close as this, where only 2 points separate the teams, this strategy can back-fire if the opposing side snatches a score. This was the possible scenario when, with just 2 minutes remaining, Instonians were awarded a penalty in a similar position to where Widdowson had missed in the first half. As the Bangor contingent held their breath, the kick was pushed wide and the danger was gone. The remaining minutes seemed to last forever, as Bangor doggedly fought to deny Instonians any possession. Frustration by Instonians resulted in a final penalty to Bangor which, fittingly, was simply kicked to touch by coach Jason Morgan bringing the game to a close, and signalling the start of the celebrations.

The 7-5 scoreline doesn’t do justice to the quality of rugby on display by both sides. In such difficult conditions, the two high-calibre sides produced an excellent performance that was exciting to watch and was a credit to junior rugby in Ulster. Bangor’s challenge now is to pick themselves up again to return to Enniscorthy on Saturday in the rescheduled semi-final of the All Ireland Junior Cup, after it was postponed last weekend due to the waterlogged pitch. However, the momentum is now with Bangor, and hopefully further success will come in this, and other competitions, over the coming months.

PS For those club members and friends who are registered with the club website, there is an additional photo album of post-match activities!