3rds enjoy a Happy New Year

With the Christmas and New Year break over, and no All Ireland League fixtures until next weekend, it was down to Bangor’s 2nds and 3rds to provide some much needed rugby action. The pick of the games was the North Down derby against Holywood 2nds, judging by the good number of supporters from both clubs. In the previous meeting between these two sides it was Bangor who had come out on top, and the hope was that they could repeat that convincing performance away from home.

From Holywood’s kick-off, Bangor looked the more lively in attack, but early chances were spoiled as a result of some erratic lineouts and handling errors. However, Bangor’s persistence eventually paid off after 15 minutes when a good backline passing move was finished off by Chris Goldthorpe who managed to force his way through and stretch for the line. With a second try following just a few minutes later after a break by Andrew Todd was finished off by Jamie Mendez to put Bangor 0-12 ahead, it looked like Bangor might take control and run up a big score. In reality, it was Holywood who picked up their game as Bangor appeared to sit back, resulting in the home side getting back on terms after 30 minutes with a converted try to bring the scores to 7-12. In the final minutes of the first half, Bangor had excellent chances to extend their lead, but handling mistakes proved costly and as the referee blew for half time they had to be satisfied with their slender lead.

Bangor got the second half underway and quickly picked up where they left off at the end of the first. The first scoring opportunity fell to Bangor with a penalty just to the right of the Holywood posts. The decision was made for James Montgomery to take the three points, but his kick rebounded off the upright and was cleared up-field by the Holywood defence. However, the ball didn’t make touch and Bangor started to run straight back. A couple of slick passes saw the ball come to Ben McAuley on the right wing who set off for the goal line. Although tackled just short of the line, he managed to twist and stretch before getting the ball down in the corner for the try. In contrast to his earlier and arguably more straightforward kick for goal, Montgomery made the touchline conversion look easy as he added the extras to bring the score to 7-19, with a quarter of the game left to play.

Whether it was the cold hands, the Christmas excesses or lack of recent game time, but from this point both sides struggled to string together any meaningful phases of play, and the game became very disjointed. However, just when it looked like the game had run its course, an optimistic cross field kick was gathered by Josh Stewart on the left hand touchline who had a simple run through to score Bangor’s bonus point try. The conversion was missed, but as the referee blew for the end of the game, Bangor could celebrate their 7-24 bonus point win, and a positive start to the New Year.