It was cold and breezy at Upritchard Park for this Provincial League game, but thankfully the wet weather experienced during the week had passed and the prospects were good for an entertaining game between these two rival clubs.

Bangor got the game underway, playing with the wind at their backs. Obviously this wasn’t taken into proper consideration as the opening drop kick went straight into touch. However, this proved to be one of the few mistakes Bangor made during the game. From the resulting scrum, Bangor immediately showed their strength in this set piece, and gave Instonians difficulty in getting the ball back. Soon afterwards, Bangor faced an Instonians lineout, just outside the visitors’ twenty two. The long throw overshot the Instonians forwards, but an alert Max Preston caught the ball, then charged through an unprepared Instonians defence to score to the left of the posts. Nathan Graham successfully added the conversion to give Bangor a 7-0 lead after just 2 minutes.

From the restart, Bangor took control and kept play inside the Instonians half. Their dominance and control at the scrums gave scrum half Matt Baillie time to choose the best attacking options. The forwards’ strength was perfectly complemented by secure hands and quick feet from the backs. As they passed the ball to Aaron Corbett on the right wing, his break stretched the Instonians defence before passing inside to Josh Nelson who barged his way deep into the Instonians twenty two. Good recycling and support then saw Thomas Boyd receive the ball on the left wing before rounding the final defender and scoring in the corner. The touchline conversion was missed, but the score had moved on to 12-0.

Although only 9 minutes of the game had been played, Bangor looked comfortable and in complete control. Great determination at the breakdowns saw Bangor win repeated turnovers, and halting any chance of an Instonians attack. It took just another 7 minutes before such a situation set up another Bangor counter-attack. As the ball was quickly passed across the backs, it finally came to Corbett who this time managed to outrun the defence and score to the right of the posts. Graham added the conversion to extend the lead to 19-0.

Bangor’s bonus point try came just another 9 minutes later when they stole an Instonians scrum which released Graham and Preston who broke through the defence before passing to Daniel Young on the left wing who squeezed over in the corner for an unconverted try. Bangor then repeated this just before half time when another Instonians scrum was turned over. The ball went loose but Corbett kicked it forward before gathering and then cruising through to touch down under the posts. With the addition of the simple conversion, Bangor had a commanding 31-0 lead at half time.

The half time break appeared to have given Instonians renewed energy and, from their restart, they took play deep into Bangor’s twenty two. As they made steady forward progress, it looked like they might manage to open their account, but Bangor’s solid defence coupled with their ability to turn over their opponents’ possession with ease not only cleared any immediate danger but also set up a blistering counter-attack. It was now the visitors who had to back-pedal and clear Bangor’s attack into touch. From the short lineout, the ball was won and came across the backs where it reached Matt Nesbitt who slipped through a couple of tackles before diving over under the posts for a converted try, just 2 minutes into the second half.

Instonians must have felt hard done by not only to have got so close themselves, but then to see their opponents reverse the situation and score in this fashion. Unfortunately for them, this was the case once again just 7 minutes later. A good period of Instonians possession was brought to an end by Preston who, once again, effected a great turn-over which set Rob Gamble free. Breaking from deep within his own half, Gamble looked for options and found Daniel Young far out on the left hand wing. A long pass was safely collected and, with nobody now in front of him, Young sprinted away and scored his second try in the corner.

A series of injuries to Instonians forwards led to the scrums having to be uncontested – always an unfortunate outcome. However, if the visitors thought this would ease the pressure, Bangor simply turned their attention away from the set pieces and focussed on the loose play. As the game entered its final quarter, Bangor’s appetite for more scores looked undiminished. Another turn-over by Preston set Ross McCloskey free, before passing to Ryan Young in close support, who then finished off the move with a try in the left hand corner.

As the demoralised Instonians players struggled to contain the Bangor attack, the home side quickly finished off any remaining resistance in the space of 4 minutes with tries from Daniel Young – rounding off his hat trick – and Ross McCloskey, with Young adding both conversions, racking the score up to 62-0. Although Instonians bravely played on to try and get some points of their own on the board, reality came to the fore and they called it a day with almost 10 minutes of playing time remaining.

This was another good performance from a 2nds side that now has the league title in its sight. It also bodes well for the senior squad as a whole as many players now have the confidence and ability to move up to the 1sts should the need arise. Next weekend will show how well the Bangor squad can cope with fielding three senior teams, especially as the 1sts travel to Omagh for a crucial AIL game that could greatly improve their league standing should they produce another winning performance.