Academy find winning form

John Andrews' side made the short trip to Ballymoney on Wednesday and emerged with a 25-18 win.

Both sides welcomed back players from Ulster Schools' duty and from the first scrum of the afternoon, Academy out half Callum Patterson broke through a tackle and off-loaded to Peter Storey who touched down between the posts. Patterson added the extras.

In the 11th minute, Ballymena extended their lead when Nicholas Stirling found a gap in the Dalriada defence and showed excellent strength to shrug off several tacklers as he scored. Patterson was unsuccessful with the conversion attempt.

In the 15th minute, Dalriada reduced the arrears with a penalty but shortly afterwards Ballymena scored the try of the afternoon.

From a five metre scrum, Matthew Rea made good ground before off-loading to Darren Geddis, who showed great pace to break free and found Caleb Morrison on his outside shoulder who ran 50 metres to finish off a fine move. Patterson missed the conversion but added a penalty two minutes later. Just before half time, Dalriada added their second penalty to leave the score at 20-6 at the interval.

The second half belonged to Dalriada and their pacey backline. Both wingers added a score each, one of which was converted, to set up a grandstand finish. However, with five minutes to go, Ballymena produced the final points of the afternoon when wing Jordan Foster went over in the corner for an unconverted try.

Academy: Morrison, Stirling, Storey, Geddis, Foster, Patterson, Fleming; McNabney, Caithness, Hargy, McMurray, Mitchell, Patton, Andrew (c), Rea.

On Saturday, Ballymena continued their winning ways with a 22-11 success over Coleraine Inst.

After falling behind to an early penalty, Ulster Schools' prop Sam McNabney showed good strength to muscle over for a well-taken unconverted score. Minutes later, Coleraine regained the lead when they drove over at close quarters.

Just before half time, Ballymena lost influential out half Patterson with an ankle injury, but not before Nicholas Stirling had gone over in the corner for an unconverted try.

Coleraine took the lead at the start of the second half with another penalty and this appeared to bring the Academy side to life.

Both Ballymena centres touched down in the next ten minutes; Darren Geddis scored a fine individual try, which Morrison converted, and Peter Storey rounded off a fine team effort minutes later.

Even with the late yellow-carding of Matthew Rea, the Academy defence held firm under some determined Coleraine pressure.

Academy: Morrison, Stirling, Storey, Geddis, Foster, Patterson, Fleming; McNabney, Caithness, Hargy, McMurray, Mitchell, Patton, Andrew (c), Rea. Replacement – Gillespie.