Dromore provide major upset in the Towns Cup

Coach Bekker decided to shuffle his pack slightly and reward Philip Lunn and Adam Proctor places in the starting line up with the remainder of the team unchanged.

Ballymena arrived at Barban Hill full of running and ready to play a running game and this showed in the opening exchanges before a well worked move in their back line left their centre a clear run to the line to open the scoring.

Dromore, playing into the wind, played a tighter game with Steenson marshalling his pack to within a sniff of the Ballymena line, a great drive allowed Harshaw to power over to open Dromore’s account for the match.

Ballymena hit back almost immediately with another well worked try which put them 14-5 up with minutes remaining of the half, further pressure from Dromore saw Adam McGregor use his pace to burst the defence and score close to the posts which Steenson converted to leave the scores 14-12 to Ballymena at half time.

Ballymena converted an early penalty in the second half to stretch their lead before Steenson found his range and converted a superb penalty from halfway to leave Dromore two points adrift.

Ryan Cobb had replaced Russell at half time and began to use the wind to pin Ballymena into their own ‘22, Dromore set up rolling mauls at every opportunity and used their superior strength to great effect, on the hour mark these tactics played dividends when young prop Andrew Black bulldosed his way over the line for the try to put Dromore in the lead for the first time, Steenson added the extras to put the home team 22- 17 in front.

Dromore entered the final quarter of the match in total control and Cobb kicked deep into the Ballymena territory to set up further Dromore attacks.

The pack dominated the set peice all afternoon and it was fitting that after another driving maul it was Blackie again who blasted over from short range to secure the win, Steenson added a late penalty to complete the scoring and give the young Dromore men a satisfying 30-17 win against the Ballymena side.

Director of Rugby Nigel Johnson was pleased after the win. “This was a fine win from the young men today, its pleasing for me to see the progress the team is making under the current coaching set up and the Town’s Cup is certainly a target that the coaches have talked about all year.

“We now enter the draw for the second round. Next week we will be looking for another league win when we travel to Academy.”