Corinthians grab a five pointer0

Corinthians came out on top against Ballymena in a bruising encounter in their final home game this season. The home side were first on the scoreboard after thirteen minutes even though they missed out on an earlier opportunity, but referee Kevin Beggs penalised Corinthians for crossing. The score came from a quick rucked ball on Ballymena’s twenty-five with a great pass by scrum-half Mark Dolan to out-half Conor Murphy.  Murphy then found centre Eoin Griffin coming on his shoulder to collect the ball and touch-down, this try was unconverted.

Ballymena got on the score board in the 17^th minute after Corinthian’s front row Dennis Buckley caused an obstruction coming from the off-side position. Centre John Simple converted the penalty to leave the score at five points to three for the home side.  Corinthians scored again in the 20^th minute after the visitors were penalised for illegal scrummaging. The home side’s Number 8 Mick McComish took a quick tap penalty and found his back row partner Sean Gerrity to touch down in the corner. Murphy missed the convert hitting off the post. On the half hour the home side were on the scoreboard again with flanker Aaron Conneely getting a quick ball out to winger Wayne Williams. He then offloaded to centre Cian Begley to score the third try for the Cloonacauneen outfit.

The try was converted by Murphy. Just before the break, after a good take  in the line-out by Corinthian’s captain Pat Cunningham, scrum-half Dolan collected and chipped to gather the ball again to score a great individual try which was converted by Murphy. The score at half time Corinthians 24, Ballymeena 3.

With the wind behind them Ballymena started well and after 1 minute their winger Roger McBurney collected a good ball and got into touch down. Simple missed the convert. Corinthian’s final score came in the 55^th minute when interaction between Dolan and winger James Buckley. Buckey passed to full back Darin Classen coming into the line to touch down in the corner. It was all Ballymena after that with big second row Darrell O’Kane picking up a loose ball in the ruck and getting in to touch down from five metres. The try was converted by Simple. The visitors with their tails up got in for another try with Simple scoring and converting the try. With 10 minutes remaining the home side battened down the hatches with scrum half Mick Roche coming in for Dolan and Dave Barden replacing Joey Merrigan. This had the desired effect until the final minute of play when Ballymena substitute winger John Nicholl got through the Corinthian defence to score a fine try. Simple missed the convert to draw the game but referee Beggs called on Ballymeena to retake the convert after the home-side challenged the kicker too early. On the second attempt Ballymena changed their kicker to out-half Martin Irwin who proceeded to miss same leaving the referee to blow the final whistle. Corinthians came out winners with 29 points to Ballymena’s 27.

Corinthians’ last game is away to Thomand on Saturday the 9^th of April in Fitzgerald Park, Limerick.

Corinthians Team: D Claasen,  J Buckley, E Griffin, C Begley, W Williams, C Murphy, M Dolan (M Roche), D Buckley,J Merrigan(D Bardon),D Small,G Ward,P Cunningham,A Conneely,S Gerrity,M McComish,