Gryphons come close against Ballynahinch

With no subs and a lot of players either playing out of position or playing their first game for the club, one may have feared the worst about the outcome before the match even kicked off. However, with a few experienced heads controlling things and an excellent team spirit all 15 guys put in a battling performance and were unlucky not to finish up with anything.

Any pre match concerns were initially forgotten as Bangor were coming out on top of the early exchanges but somewhat against the run of play Hinch’s rather portly centre made a good break and after barrelling his away through a few tackles touched down out wide – conversion missed (0 – 5).

Bangor quickly went on the offensive again and after a number of promising attacks they were awarded a penalty within kicking distance. Unfortunately due to a faulty kicking tee the kick was missed, however Bangor remained very much on the front foot.

Shortly after though Bangor went down to 14 men when Michael Campbell landed awkwardly on his knee and was unable to take any further part in the game. The injury though seemed to spur Bangor on further and built a number on excellent platforms to attack from.

Following one such attack Bangor were awarded a 5 yard penalty and opted to take a quick tap. Morgan Ellis charged on to the ball and although he was held up just short he had done his job by taking out a number of Hinch players and laying the ball back perfectly. From the ensuing maul Jonny Paulin was able to pick up and drive over for Bangor’s first try – R Law converted (7 – 5).

Bangor continued on the ascendancy with many promising attacks, and a wayward Hinch clearing kick was fielded by Pete Gray who went on one of his typical mazy runs. After beating a number of Hinch covering defenders the way was open for the Bangor Skipper to stretch his legs and ghost past the full back to score under the posts – R law converted (14 – 5).

If only the referee had then blown his whistle for half time – as with 14 men a somewhat longer than usual final couple of plays saw Bangor stretched and the Hinch 8 broke through the defence to score a good try which was duly converted.

Half time score 14 – 12

The second half unfortunately got off to a bad start and after a few scrappy phases Hinch moved the ball well to create an overlap with the bulky centre again scampering clear to score out wide – conversion missed (14 – 17).

Although the score line didn’t change for the rest of the half there were a lot of promising attacks from sides. It was encouraging to see the determination of the Bangor team to work hard for each other and continue to compete with what was an impressive VI’s team who had a number of strong runners.

The game did deteriorate towards the end with both teams loosing players to the sin bin but this did not take the gloss off what was a highly competitive and entertaining start to the season.

The young front row of Michael Campbell, Chris Palmer and Morgan Ellis competed well, with Morgan’s line-out throwing deserving special mention. All three guys carried the ball well and made their fair share of tackles. Neither Chris nor Michael had played a lot of rugby over recent seasons so it was good to see them involved. Clearly the injury to Michael was untimely and we wish him a speedy recovery and hope to see him on the pitch again soon.

The engine room was filled by Ryan Meeke and Phil Wickers who both put in a lot of good work especially given the former was carrying an ankle injury throughout. They both secured a number of balls from the line out which provided Bangor with a good attacking platform.

A back row of Ian McBurney, Jonny Paulin and Stephen Brennan competed and scrapped at every breakdown and ensured Bangor won their fair share of ball. Ian led the pack and although reduced to 7 for over 60 mins he got the best out of them. Amazingly given the referee was not shy in brandishing yellow cards towards the end of the game Benny stayed on the pitch for the entire 80 minutes and played with his usual vigour! JP heads off on his travels now, which we wish him well for, and if the Gryphons get on a cup run who knows he may even be able to catch a few games at the end of the season.

The Law twins filled the pivotal 9 and 10 shirts and both had very assured games. Tony on many occasions was forced to be the extra forward but was certainly not shy of putting in the hard yards. He supplied Ryan with good service which Ryan used well through out. Ryan had a sound tactical game and put in a number of excellent positional kicks and converted the two trys – we won’t dwell on the penalty which got barely airborne!

Aaron Waterson and Jamie Mendez filled the centre births and both never shirked from the work load throughout. Aaron playing out of position brought his back row experience to what was a hard fought area of the pitch. Jamie had a number of good runs and was unfortunate not to get over for a try. Both carried the ball strongly and laid a good platform for Bangor to attack from.

A back three of David Skelly, Pete Gray and Oran Kane looked threatening throughout especially in passages of broken play. Skells playing well out of position was not shy throughout to seek hard work, with a number of good carries and sound defensive work. Oran was a constant attacking threat and had a number of good runs from which he was unfortunate not to score on a couple of occasions. Pete Gray was simply Pete Gray – classy throughout, and led the team by example.

Hats off to all 15 who played, I left heartened by the determination and commitment shown throughout and although the result went the wrong way it was a decent platform to start the season with.