Opinion: Weather can’t put dampener on crucial win for Braidmen

Just before Christmas Ballymena sat at the top of both competitions that they compete in, the local Ulster Senior League and the All Ireland League, Division 2A.
Ballymena Rugby Club chairman Bill Wallace.Ballymena Rugby Club chairman Bill Wallace.
Ballymena Rugby Club chairman Bill Wallace.

While we still occupy joint top slot in the Ulster League, a couple of defeats at the hands of Derry and Cashel, have seen us slide down the table and we currently sit in fifth place, with a game in hand.

Saturday’s win against Bective was hard fought, but the heavy underfoot conditions were always going to prevent any kind of expansive rugby, and that is how it turned out.

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However, the four points for the win were very welcome, and that leaves us one point behind the teams occupying second, third and fourth places in the AIL table, so the possibility of gaining promotion is still there.

Galwegians have built up a hefty lead in first place and seem unlikely to be caught, so the real competition is for second place, with Ballymena very much in the mix.

In the Ulster Senior League we share the lead with Ballynahinch, our opponents this Saturday in what the Press may like to call a league decider, but we have one more game after that, at home to Banbridge, so we will not be making any such assumptions, especially since Banbridge beat us earlier in the season in the AIL fixture.

Whether the game against Ballynahinch turns out to be a league decider or not, it is still important, but the occasion is likely to be devalued by the decision of Ulster to play a Ravens game against Munster at the weekend.

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That will impact upon us, as a number of our promising young players have already this season been selected for the Ravens, but it will presumably have a similar impact upon Ballynahinch, who have built up a squad of good players and currently compete in Division 1A, so they can expect to lose players to the Ravens as well.

The ramifications spread further down both clubs, as we both have our second teams competing in the quarter finals of the Towns’ Cup and loss of players from the first squad will mean that both our Towns’ Cup sides will be severely weakened.

Common sense would suggest that the Ulster Senior League game should be postponed until both clubs are at full strength, thus giving the players who have represented us in the Cup the opportunity to do so again.

In our case, our route to the quarter final has included a victory over Portadown, who at that stage were on top of the Qualifying One League, so our second team are clearly there on merit.

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This Saturday is a big day for Rugby altogether, with Ireland taking on England at Twickenham and a number of other representative fixtures taking place as well.

On a less exalted plane, and I hope the players forgive me for saying that, our Fourths and Fifths have unfinished Cup business, as they attempt to catch up after the postponements caused by bad weather.

The Fourths will play Dromore at Eaton Park in the Forster Cup at about the fourth time of asking, and in the same competition the Fifths will travel to take on the winners of Armagh and Portadown. A busy week in prospect!

Bill Wallace (Ballymena RFC chairman)

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