Academy beat Rainey but lose against Dubliners

Danske Bank officials Mrs Carol Wilson (Senior Manager) and Mr Alan Murdock (Business Relationship Manager) presents sponsorship to Ballymena Academy First XV captain Duncan Maguire. Also included are E Kosch, J McKeown, J Jolly and Mr Alistair McKay.

On Wednesday, they travelled to Magherafelt to take on the improving Rainey Endowed side.

The away team were quick out of the blocks and opened the scoring when scrum half Jack Archer sneaked over from the base of a ruck.

Marcus Rea added the conversion and Ballymena continued to apply pressure when Jonny Rosborough was on hand to finish in the corner.

Marcus Rea narrowly missed the touchline conversion and the score remained 10–0 until the half time whistle sounded.

In the second half, Ballymena added three more converted tries.

Ballymena’s dynamic maul paved the way for Joe Thompson and, later, for Josh McNabney to touch down whilst Andrew Magrath rounded off the scoring with an outstanding individual try.

Marcus Rea converted all three to leave the final score reading 33–0 to Ballymena Academy.

Three days later, Ballymena entertained St Mary’s College for their annual fixture.

The Dublin school started strongly and went into an early 8–0 lead through a penalty and an unconverted try.

The home team rallied and wing Jonny Rosborough powered through a gap in the St. Mary’s defence to score below the posts.

Marcus Rea added the conversion and repeated his accuracy five minutes later following a try from Connor White.

The second half was dominated by the Leinster lads and they were gifted two quick tries through poor defensive decision-making by the local team.

A decisive third try was added with ten minutes to go and the conversion stretched the lead to 27–14.

Ballymena reduced the deficit to 27– 9 through a late consolation try when Jonny McKeown finished in the corner.