Bangor bounce back with bonus

Deramore Park hasn’t been a particularly happy hunting ground for Bangor over the past few seasons as the challenge of facing a team that plays in a league above them in the All Ireland League makes the task more difficult than usual. However, the Bangor players were relishing the opportunity to get their Ulster Rugby Premiership back on track while their opponents were also looking for their first win after a narrow loss to Dungannon earlier.

Playing under the lights on Friday evening, Bangor made a textbook start to the game with dominant scrums, secure lineouts and accurate passing. This was rewarded after just 5 minutes of play when Gareth Millar split the Quins defence before lobbing a wide pass to Mark Widdowson on the right hand wing for a well-taken try in the corner. No conversion for Millar, but first blood to Bangor.

Quins were clearly unsettled as their restart kick went straight into touch. However, a rare mistake at the back of Bangor’s scrum restored possession to Quins as they counter attacked. Bangor defended well despite being unexpectedly on the back foot, but Quins proved to be more alert at a lineout on Bangor’s 5 metre line, and dived over for a converted try, putting them ahead by 7-5.

Bangor’s reply came just 5 minutes later after pressuring the Quins defence to carry the ball over their own goal line before grounding it, and giving Bangor a 5 metre scrum. A charge from Mike Weir at Number 8 was stopped just short of the line but, as the ball was recycled through the backs, a clever flick pass by Millar was collected by Widdowson who ran through for his second try in the corner. This time, Millar added the difficult conversion to put Bangor back ahead by 7-12. Bangor came close to adding a further 3 points before half time when Millar stepped up for a long range penalty, but the ball bounced back off the crossbar before being cleared to touch by the Quins defence.

Quins looked re-energised at the start of the second half when, just 5 minutes from the restart, a series of positional kicks to touch and secure lineouts led to their second try, close to Bangor’s posts which, with the addition of the simple conversion, put the home side back in front by 14-12.

As the game continued to see-saw, it was Bangor who got on the scoreboard next with a cleanly taken drop goal by Millar after several phases of play on the Quins twenty two, nudging his side narrowly ahead by 14-15.

Once again Quins came back through some impressive attacking runs. However, this was more than matched by a remarkable Bangor counter attack that started deep inside their own twenty two. Good support by Patrick Dobie on Shay Storey’s chip and chase resulted in an attacking scrum for Bangor just inside the Quins twenty two. The forwards made the hard yards before full back Ryan Young finished off the attack with a try in the right hand corner. Millar added the touchline conversion to stretch Bangor’s lead to 14-22, with 30 minutes of the game left to play.

Quins consistency at their lineouts came to the rescue once again 10 minutes later when a catch and drive saw them power over for their third converted try, and reduce Bangor’s lead to 21-22.

A mix-up by Quins at the restart handed both possession and the initiative back to Bangor. Despite then losing the ball in a tackle and conceding a pressure-relieving scrum to Quins, the Bangor pack produced another massive shove which earned them a penalty, from which Millar found touch on the Quins 5 metre line. In the melee that followed the lineout and ruck, Andy Smyth was the quickest to react when the ball popped up and dived over for Bangor’s bonus point try. Millar added the extras to bring the score to 21-29. Despite scoring chances for both sides in the final minutes, neither was able to add to their score and Bangor were able to savour a hard-earned victory.

While by no means a flawless performance, the nature of Bangor’s response to their previous game is credit-worthy, especially given the calibre of the opposition. Although their confidence will have been given a major boost, it won’t get any easier for Bangor as they host Rainey Old Boys, who also play in the same league as Harlequins, at Upritchard Park next Saturday.