Valley on the ‘Money’ to make Junior Cup progress

Clogher Valley  42  

Ballymoney   0

CLOGHER Valley were blessed to be able to play Saturday’s Junior Cup encounter with Ballymoney under unbroken winter sun at The Cranwhile other areas of Tyrone were experiencing horrendous weather conditions.

 At the first contact the Valley lost second row forward Eugene McKenna to a rib injury with Joel Busby leaving the bench much earlier than anticipated.

That didn’t derail the home charge and  a great spectacle of running rugby in front of a car load of Newcastle West supporters, who had travelled up from Limerick to run their eye over their AIL Junior Cup semi-final opponents, ensued.

Ballymoney have a good robust pack and probably edged the territory stats but it was the Valley ability to score from deep, with pace and skill, that won the day.

The Valley chose scrum option at a few kickable penalties, which in closer encounters could be crucial, but initially the visiting pack was having none of it even turning over one such scrum. The visitors settled and had a strong period testing the Valley defence for a stretch until Reece Smyton sailed through a gap to start a play that almost went the length of the pitch. A Ballymoney forward took a fly hack at a loose ball in his own 22’ area and with great accuracy  found the open arms of skipper Paul Armstrong  who then crossed for the opening try which he duly goaled.

On the twenty minute mark, the Valley were under pressure but again ran from behind their own line with most of the backs and back row involved taking play into the ‘Money 22 area. This time it was Clogher who would turnover a scrum and several phases later Ewan Haire, who was superb all afternoon, crossed for the second try with Armstrong adding the extras.

The third try came from the kick-off. Callum Smyton caught it broke the first tackle and to his surprise he was clear. He ran seventy metres down the touchline with ‘money defenders in hot pursuit but he still managed to score under the posts. Armstrong obliged with the extras. Before the break another sweeping move almost added the fourth try but the final pass didn’t go to hand.

The second period was only a minute old when Stuart Brown put Regan Wilkinson into space and in a fifty metre dash he scored a great try. Armstrong added the extras.

Four minutes later after another great passage Haire crossed under the posts with Armstrong adding the conversion. Ballymoney were flagging a bit as the half progressed. Several long range strikes by the Valley were just held out and the home side now had domination at scrum time.

David Sharkey stole a Ballymoney line out, Haire squeezed through a gap to put Brown into space. The winger left all in his slipstream as he outflanked the covering defence for an excellent wingers try. Armstrong again converted adding another seventeen points to his seasons tally.

The combination of Armstrong and, man of the match, Reece Smyton in the centre caused all sorts of problems for Ballymoney but despite some more adventurous  play scoring was complete for the day.

Back to league action next Saturday with the visit of Ballyclare to the Cran. Never an easy fixture. Kickoff 2.30pm.