The combination of having a lot of youth players making the step up to senior rugby with an equally enthusiastic group of more mature players still wanting to play, but not on a Saturday, has led to the formation of a mid-week league that is scheduled to run for the next couple of months. In what was always going to be a tough opening fixture, Bangor hosted Ballynahinch 6ths under the lights at Upritchard Park on Wednesday night.

It would probably be fair to say that Bangor’s lack of time training and playing together as a team soon became obvious, but there were still plenty of old and new skills on show. In fact it was Bangor who were first to score, but the speed of Hinch’s young backs combined with Bangor’s reluctance to tackle soon set the score board moving in the visitors’ favour and within 30 minutes the home side was 5-42 behind, and the outlook was looking bleak. However, by the time the referee blew for half time, Bangor had recouped two more tries and trailed by 15-47. It is perhaps also worth noting that this opening half contained no scrums!

The second half picked off where the first had ended, with Hinch adding another two converted tries to put them even further ahead by 15-61. But the Bangor players stuck to their task and, although unable to compete with the speed of the Hinch backs, were more than capable of matching their opponents in the loose play. Eventually Bangor’s effort and persistence was rewarded with two tries which went some way to softening the otherwise heavy 27-68 defeat, and also gain the consolation of picking up a try-scoring bonus point. For the record, Bangor’s tries came from Sam Lennon, Conor McKee and Davy Charles in the first half, with Sirelli Magoon and Lee Johnston in the second.