There was an air of celebration at Upritchard Park on Saturday, as the club could finally enjoy the fruits of several months work in completing the refurbishment of the clubhouse. With the cricketers hosting Cregagh in their penultimate league fixture, and the rugby 1sts and 2nds in action against Dromore and Ballynahinch, there was a large crowd in attendance to enjoy a true ‘club’ day. Bangor’s 1sts were hoping to improve on last week’s narrow defeat at Ards, although with Dromore as the opposition, this was going to be a tough challenge. The 2nds were up against Ballynahinch 3rds in their opening league fixture, and there was plenty of interest to see how they would approach the start of their season.

It all started so well...

The cricketers were already in control of their game as the rugby got underway. From the outset, both Bangor teams were exerting early pressure on their opponents, and picking up early tries as a result. Focussing on the 1sts game, Josh Carman got his first try for Bangor within the opening five minutes, as he finished off a fine move down the left wing by sprinting away from the Dromore defence. Rhys Larmour was on kicking duties and added the conversion to put Bangor into an early 7-0 lead.

However, this lead was short-lived, and as good as it got for Bangor, as Dromore soon got into their stride and started to apply lengthy periods of sustained pressure. As the big Dromore pack began to dominate the set pieces and rucks, their backs were ready to provide the finishing touches, and quickly ran in three tries, two of which were converted, to race into a 7-19 lead after 30 minutes of play.

Bangor’s ability to find space on the wings was again evident when Danny Young finished off a good backline move and, although his try in the corner was unconverted, Bangor were now back in touch at 12-19.

Unfortunately, this was cancelled out with the last play of the first half when Bangor conceded a penalty at their scrum. A quick tap, and a few phases later, Dromore had scored their bonus point try close to Bangor’s posts, making the added conversion a formality and stretching their half-time lead to 12-26.

Conceding a try in these circumstances was not only an unfortunate setback for Bangor, but also a boost for Dromore. This was clearly evident as the visitors struck again in the opening minutes of the second half, benefitting from some poor Bangor tackling before successfully collecting a clever chip ahead and running through for another try.

Although now 12-33 behind, Bangor had nothing to lose by throwing all they had into attack. Thomas Boyd produced a characteristic charge as he forced his way through the tackles on his way into the Dromore twenty two. However, the move came to an end when he finally became wrapped up by the defence, followed by a loose pass which was turned over and then cleared downfield. To compound this missed opportunity, Bangor then lost their lineout in midfield, followed by yet more poor tackling which allowed Dromore to capitalise on the repeated mistakes and score two further tries to race into an unassailable 12-47 lead.

As the game entered its final quarter, Bangor finally produced their best combination of passing, support and movement. From deep inside his own half, Danny Young started off down the right touchline. Big brother Ryan was on hand to take up the running and brought play into the Dromore half before finding Marty Withers who was charging up through the centre. Withers’ new streamlined version helped him race through to the Dromore twenty two, even selling a dummy to the advancing defence, before off-loading to Carman who had the space and pace to finish off the move with a touchdown under the posts.

Although the game was still beyond rescue for Bangor, there was now a glimmer of hope that they would pick up one more try and salvage a try-scoring bonus point. Alas, Dromore simply picked off Bangor’s growing number of handling and tackling errors as they tried to chase the game, and ran away with four more tries to bring the final reckoning to 19-73.

This was by far one of the heaviest defeats that Bangor have suffered at Upritchard Park. There is certainly much to be addressed in several areas of play that Bangor must sort out if they want to start moving up the league table. By contrast, Dromore are looking like a class act, and are sure to be one of the contenders for this season’s league honours. Thankfully, Bangor’s 2nds lifted the Upritchard Park mood somewhat with a convincing 43-12 bonus point win that gives them the perfect start to their league aspirations.