Bonus point eases defeat in Galway

Ballymena are usually a match for most packs but on Saturday they had to work a lot harder because the home pack was huge.

In fact the only try of the first half, in the 13th minute, was mainly made by the home forwards when number EIGHT Ambrose Conboy made a good break and fed to Dave Nolan who scored out wide. Centre David Clarke put over a tremendous conversion to make the score seven points to nil.

Ballymena were sharper and hungrier in the second half and the home side were struggling especially at restarts.

From a scrum in midfield Ballymena got the ball and moved it right and Tommy Seymour scored the try and Luke Marshall got the conversion to make it all square.

Although Ballymena were on top at this stage but in the 50th minute Galway went ahead again. The home pack made good ground and tied up the Ballymena defence. The ball was moved out quickly and John Cleary broke away to score under the posts with Clarke again converting.

Ballymena came back strongly, forced three penalties in five minutes with Luke Marshall converting two to make the score 14 points to 13 for Galway. With the game getting to a crucial stage Ballymena were penalised but they argued and the referee pushed them back 10 metres which put the posts within range and Clarke again got the points.

Shortly after this ex-Ulster scrum half Kieran Campbell was sin binned and although Ballymena tried really hard all they could muster was another penalty from Luke Marshall.

This puts Ballymena in the bottom four of the table but they are five points ahead of third from bottom Buccaneers and a further point ahead of Ballynahinch and Dungannon who are bottom of the table.

Ballymena's final two games are at home to Dungannon on March 27 and away to Ballynahinch on April 10, so their fate is very much in their own hands.

Ballymena: R McBurney; P Budina, K Moore, I Whitten, T Seymour; L Marshall, D O'Hara; J Carson, R Fisher, S Shawe, D O'Kane, B Young, P Smith, W McKay, S McKinney. Subs (all used): G Fisher, J Taggart, A Warwick, A Kerr, R Hackney.