Ballynahinch secure SONI Premiership title

Ballynahinch secured the SONI Ulster Rugby Premiership title, thanks to a 21-13 win over Malone in today's decider at Ballymacarn Park. This winner takes all at Ballymacarn Park served up an excellent game of rugby. After 'Hinch took the lead through a Richard Reaney penalty goal in the 1st minute, Malone took control of the game. Graham Curtis and Shane Kelly worked hard to keep their impressive mobile pack going forward, they played a very effective off-loading game with high level of accuracy. Ryan Campbell missed a shot at goal in the 7th minute but made amends in the 10th and 21st minutes with two well struck penalty goals to take Malone 3-6 clear. Lee Barlow had the experience and Matty Dalton the youth and together they spearheaded the visitors attack on numerous occasions. The Hinch side scrambled to hang on numerous occasions then centre Davy McMaster crossed for a try in the 25th minute which Campbell converted for a 3-13 lead. Malone controlled the remainder of the half but let their guard slip in the 40th minute allowing Reaney to convert his second penalty goal to leave the score 6-13 at halftime. The 'Hinch men started the second half in much better form and kept Malone under pressure for long periods. Keith Dickson closed the points gap to 11-13 with a well taken score in the 49th minute. Up front the 'Hinch pack started to dominate with John Donnan, Keith Dickson, Campbell Classon, and young Bradley Luney all making strong runs, but it was centre Ross Adair who stole the show. Adair had a busy second half carrying ball then in the 76th minute he stuck a well taken drop goal to give the Hinch a narrow single point lead 14-13. In the final minute another surge upfield from Adair followed by an offload off the ground to Ryan Wilson created the opening to allow Wilson to cross beside the posts for his first try for the club. Reaney added the extras to leave the 'Hinch as league champions for this season. After the game, the Stevenson Shield was presented to Ballynahinch Captain Aaron Cairns by Philip Gregg, Junior Vice President of the Ulster Branch. 'Hinch Coach Tom Rock was delighted and said, "I think there was some improving to be done after that first 40. We started slowly, maybe a Christmas hangover, but they've certainly responded to what we said to the boys at half-time and yeah we came out in the second half and I think in the end deserved it. "I think we put in a really good performance two or three weeks ago against Malone in the All Ireland League where we showed bags of desire and we were really physical and aggressive and, as I say, we didn't come out the blocks first half and you know Malone wanted it more. You know they haven't won this for some time I'm told, for many years. They probably did want it more in the first half and that showed, so he just needed to take stock and come out firing which thankfully we did. "There was some great play in the last quarter for the last 25/30 minutes really, there was only one side was going to score really, it was just a case of whether we could keep our composure and go over the line. Obviously Ross Adair just off broken play picked up the drop goal which took the pressure off us a little bit and then a quality score to finish, so yeah really, obviously delighted. "This is a massive week for us, I mean we've got the Millar McCall Wylie Junior Cup Final midweek and then we've got the semi-final of the First Trust Senior Cup on Saturday as well as us as was the second round of the Towns Cup. So it's a big week it's a case of managing the boys over Christmas and New Year. There were some early changes today with that in mind so hopefully we can keep everyone reasonably fresh for because there's more big challenges ahead with the AIL in January." The 'Hinch Captain Aaron Cairns said, "We were slow out of the blocks in the first half and Malone came at us in fairness to them and probably had the better of the first half of the two teams. I came off the bench for the second half and was told to just to try and get a bit of structure into the team, and try to build a bit of composure and I felt that we sort of managed to do that and we built are away in the second half quite well. The boys should a lot of character and the result after that last 20 minutes was well deserved. "I think in rugby momentum's is a big thing and we managed to build a bit of momentum in the second half. Whenever you've got momentum you've got confidence, you've got belief and the boys upped their accuracy and upped their concentration levels and it showed out there. We are delighted." Ballynahinch: 1 Ben Cullen, 2 Zack McCall, 3 Jonny Blair, John Donnan, Tom Martin, 6 Thomas Donnan, 7 Bradley Luney, 8 Keith Dickson, 9 Lewis Finlay, 10 Ryan Wilson, 11 Connor Phillips, 12 Robin Harte, 13 Ross Adair, 14 Richard Reaney, 15 Paddy Wright. Replacements 16 Clayton Milligan, 17 Campbell Classon, 19 Hilton Gibbons, 20 Aaron Cairns Malone: 1 Ben Halliday, 2 Dan Kerr, 3 Ricky Greenwood, 4 Matty Dalton, 5 Lee Barlow, 6 Jonathan Davis, 7 Tiarian Dillon 8 Joe Dunleavy, 9 Graeme Curtis, 10 Shane Kelly, 11 Gareth Millar, 12 Josh Pentland, 13 Davy McMaster, 14 Mark O’Connor, 15 Rory Campbell. Replacements 16 Scott Finlay, 17 Michael Shields, 18 John Davidson, 19 Connor Spence, 20 Chris Jordan Report: John Dickson