Oscar-winning performance sinks Sundays Well

This season’s All Ireland League competition got underway on Saturday with Bangor facing newly relegated Sundays Well in Division 2C. Although both clubs had faced each other in the past, it was such a long time ago that neither would have known much about each other now, making this match all the more interesting. The Cork side came into this match on the back of some good wins in their provincial cup competitions. Although Bangor had a more mixed start to the season by way of results, their steady progress under coach Tom Rock’s guidance was encouraging and confidence was high ahead of this important league opener.

Although the weather conditions were awful, with a heavy drizzle falling and wind blowing towards the cricket end, the playing surface was in great condition if perhaps a little soft underfoot. As the visitors kicked off with the wind at their backs, it looked like a day for the forwards, especially given the size of the big Cork men.

Although Bangor started confidently, a high tackle inside their own twenty two provided an early opportunity for the Sundays Well to take a kick at goal. The relatively straightforward kick was slotted over by fullback Brian Derham to give his side a 0-3 lead after just 4 minutes of play. However, just 3 minutes later some good approach play by Bangor forced a penalty for themselves, which Oscar Yandall successfully converted to level the scores at 3-3.

Given the size and particularly the height of some of the Sundays Well forwards it was perhaps no surprise that some tackles were high, and were penalised accordingly. Unfortunately as this became a repeated problem, the referee had little option but to give the visitors a yellow card. With their scrum now under pressure, Bangor forced a penalty a few minutes later. Although quite a distance out, and with the wind in his face, Yandall produced a powerful and accurate kick to put his side in front by 6-3. Unfortunately, the shine was taken off this soon afterwards when Phil Whyte was given a yellow card for an illegal tackle. With just 6 minutes of the first half remaining, and with the extra man advantage, Sundays Well upped their game and forced Bangor back into their own twenty two. Wave after wave of attacks were forced back by a well-organised Bangor defence. However, the visitors had already shown their appetite to pass the ball across their backs and, with their opponents now stretched thin it looked like they would take advantage of the extra space and score. Thankfully for Bangor, with their goal line at their mercy, a loose forward pass at the final phase left Sundays Well rueing their best scoring opportunity. With Bangor being able to clear their lines and close out the final minutes of the first half, this was a costly mistake for the visitors, leaving Bangor ahead by 6-3 at the half time whistle.

With the wind now in their favour, Bangor got the second half underway and within seconds of their kick, a mistake by Sundays Well resulted in another penalty opportunity for Yandall. Although the kick looked as though it had been scuffed, the ball cleared the uprights to extend Bangor’s lead to 9-3. Sundays Well clawed back 3 points soon afterwards, again through a successful Derham kick.

At this stage, with just a couple of minutes of the second half having been played, the game looked finely balanced with just 3 points separating the sides. The Sundays Well backs were looking more comfortable on the ball as they looked to swing it wide to their wingers whenever possible. Their quick thrusts into Bangor’s twenty two forced the home side to double back but, in their efforts to cover the danger, they strayed offside giving Sundays Well a penalty close to the Bangor line. The Sundays Well forwards took the ball and charged for the line. Although their first few surges were stopped short of the line, the ball came back to centre Ryan Buckley who powered through to touch down under the Bangor posts. With Derham adding the simple conversion, Sundays Well were now in front again by 9-13. To make matters worse for Bangor, a defensive tackle by Logan Norman slid up too high on his opposite number, resulting in him receiving a yellow card.

It should have been Bangor who were now the more nervous, being a man down and trailing by 4 points, but another moment of indiscipline by Sundays Well saw them suffer another yellow card for a tackle off the ball as Bangor attempted to break through their defence. Yandall continued his good run of kicks by converting the penalty and bringing his side back to within a point of the visitors. With Sundays Well now having to manage their manpower deficit, Bangor forced another penalty which Yandall kicked to put Bangor back in front by 15-13 with just over a quarter of the match remaining.

Once again, the game looked as if it could swing either way, but a moment of typical opportunism by David Bradford saw him break clear and completely split the Sundays Well defence. As he sprinted towards the line, it looked like it would be a close contest as to whether or not he had enough pace to reach the Sundays Well goal line. In the end, with just a few metres to go, the determined Sundays Well defender just managed to tap Bradford’s ankle and bring him down. All was not lost, however, as the Bangor support quickly recycled the ball and passed it across to the right hand side where Nathan Graham gathered and then slid over the line for a well-deserved try. The icing on the cake was added by the faultless Yandall who successfully kicked the tricky touchline conversion.

At last there was some breathing space between the two sides, as this converted try had left Sundays Well having to score twice if they were to take the win and, with just 10 minutes remaining, this looked unlikely. Their difficult task was made practically improbable when they were later penalised for collapsing the scrum, giving Yandall the game’s final word by adding another 3 points and confirming Bangor’s win by 25-13.

While Bangor benefitted greatly by a mis-firing Sundays Well lineout, their determination and teamwork was clear to see. It was also good to see that despite the intensity and hard tackling by both teams, there were no serious injury worries to carry forward to next weekend. For Bangor’s part, this will be a big relief as they face the long journey to Midleton in County Cork, where they have always had close contests and points will be hard to come by. Nonetheless, on the basis of this opening performance, Bangor’s confidence will be justifiably high and, with more fine tuning to be done over the coming week, there is no reason why they shouldn’t start to build a solid run of results in this early phase of the league.