Derry defeated by battling Bangor

With the same starting 15 that produced a polished and dominant display against Thomond a few weeks earlier, hopes were high that Bangor could improve on their previously narrow defeat at Derry in the SONI league. On that occasion, Bangor fielded a heavily depleted side, mainly in the forwards, due to many players attending Jamie Clegg’s wedding. For Derry’s part, they were sitting just a point below Bangor in the league, and were growing in confidence after some impressive victories. By contrast, Bangor were hoping to put their poor result against Midleton behind them, and re-energise their early good form.

Bangor were set to kick off, playing towards the cricket end, and into the prevailing wind. If they were hoping to cut out the errors which proved so costly at Midleton, they couldn’t have got off to a worse start. Probably misjudging the effect of the wind, Declan Maguire’s kick didn’t go the requisite distance and Derry had a scrum on the half way line. They won this with worrying ease, then elected to use the wind to carry the positional kick deep inside Bangor’s twenty two. At the line-out, Bangor’s throw wasn’t straight, so possession returned to Derry with another scrum. Again, the Derry pack looked solid and, after a couple of phases, it was Adam Bratton who drove through a weak defensive line to score. Although the conversion was missed, Derry were ahead by 0-5 after just 2 minutes of play.

Bangor continued to look uneasy, as handling errors cost them the opportunity to settle into a fluent game plan. The Derry pack continued to dominate the scrums, with their street-wise front row repeatedly causing Bangor problems. As the Bangor scrum struggled, so the penalty count against them mounted. Such was the strength of the wind, Derry elected to kick for goal from just a metre or so inside the Bangor half. Conal Gill’s kick had the length, but it veered just wide of the posts. However, Derry had another penalty just a few minutes later, and this time they chose to tap and go, as they were much deeper inside Bangor’s half. From the quick tap, the ball was passed right to Simon Logue who found plenty of space to run through and score. Again the conversion was missed, but Derry were now 0-10 ahead with 13 minutes played, and looking like there was more to come.

However, as time went on, Bangor somehow managed to work themselves back into the game, with some good breaks and lengthy spells of possession. Eventually it was Stephen Moore, having another impressive game at wind forward, who used his pace to break from his own half towards the Derry twenty two. Seeing both Phil Broderick and Desi Fusco steaming up on the wing outside him, he had all the support he needed. His pass found Broderick who outpaced the Derry winger before touching down in the left hand corner. Mark Widdowson’s conversion attempt was unsuccessful, but importantly Bangor had points on the board just before half time. Unfortunately the score came at a cost, as a late and clumsy tackle on Moore, after he had passed to Broderick, resulted in him having to limp off the pitch with a painful knee injury.

With no further scores before half time, it was perhaps with a sense of hopeful optimism that Bangor would be able to use the conditions in the second half to claw themselves back into contention. However, Bangor had suffered another setback when Liam Preston took a knock and was forced to sit out the remainder of the game on the touchline, resulting in Widdowson having to move to scrum half from his more normal position in the centre. With Jamie Clegg now on for the injured Moore, and both Orran McIlmurray and Andrew Jackson moving into the front row, Bangor’s scrum also had a new look.

As Derry got the second half underway, it looked like a repeat of the first half was on the cards. Early pressure earned Derry a penalty in front of Bangor’s posts, but some distance out. To Bangor’s relief, the kick was wide, and the danger cleared. Pretty soon, it looked like the tide was turning in the battle of the forwards. Better rucking resulted in Bangor winning turn-over balls, and a more solid scrum was not only holding its own, but starting to exert pressure on their opposite numbers. Despite a general improvement in play, Bangor hadn’t made any impact on the scoreboard, and the touchline supporters began to feel that Derry would maybe manage to hold on to their slim lead. It was not until the start of the final quarter of the game that Bangor’s fortunes changed and the breakthrough came. Widdowson was making great ground with his kicks to touch, both from penalties and open play. With Lewis Stevenson and Jamie Clegg playing their part in the resulting line-outs, Bangor started to turn the screw, pinning Derry inside their own twenty two. Sustained pressure brought them close to the Derry line, but a knock-on gave the visitors a scrum on their own 5 metre line. The change in fortune between the packs was obvious. First it was Bangor who started to push the Derry back off their own ball. Sensing they would lose possession, a Derry hand scooped the ball back towards his side again. Despite the referee missing this, Bangor simply pushed harder, winning the ball back again. With the Derry pack now in reverse gear, their last ditch effort to halt Bangor was to collapse the scrum, leaving the referee with no option but to award a penalty try. With the 7 points this brought, Bangor at last had their noses in front by 12-10, with 20 minutes left to play.

With just a 2 point lead, the game was now on a knife-edge, with the final result still very much in the balance. However, Bangor have proved on many occasions that they are at their most dangerous in the closing stages of the game, and this proved to be the case once again. With the Bangor forwards now producing strong drives and setting up solid attacking platforms for their backs, it wasn’t long before this provided an opportunity to swing the ball quickly to the left wing where Desi Fusco used his speed and strength to force his way over in the corner for the try.

Now 17-10 ahead, Bangor were in a more comfortable position, but still within a converted try of being caught by Derry. No doubt with this in mind, when a long range penalty opportunity came up, Nathan Graham stepped up and successfully slotted home from just inside the Derry half, to put 2 scores between the sides at 20-10.

If this had been the final score, the Bangor supporters would probably have taken it with both hands, especially given their side’s poor earlier showing. However, the players had other ideas, sensing the game had finally swung in their favour. With the game now entering its final few minutes, Nathan Graham added to his penalty kick with a searing run through Derry’s tiring defence to score Bangor’s unlikely bonus point try under the posts. With Widdowson’s straightforward conversion, Bangor had stretched their lead to 27-10, which they successfully defended until the final whistle.

While feeling a degree of sympathy for the Derry players who must have felt it was going to be their day, but left the field with nothing to show for their efforts, the Bangor coaches and supporters can feel justly proud of the way in which their players responded to the situation and battled for the whole 80 minutes in pursuit of their goal. Now lying second in the league table, hopefully Bangor can carry some confidence into next weekend’s away fixture at Tullamore and reverse the results they have suffered there over the past two seasons.