Letterkenny under 18s injury woes continue to hamper their start to the season as they travelled to Ballymena on a foggy and cool sat morning with only 14 players to field. The match gets under way with Ballymena kicking off from left to right with little wind to influence the match. Letterkenny are a little sluggish in the opening mins and allow Ballymena to get a foot hold in their 22. The ref awards the first penalty to Ballymena for an infringement from the forwards 5 meters from the Letterkenny line, which they tap and go, Letterkenny do well to hold the initial drive with Ben Hopkins smothering the ball and preventing the quick feed and manages to retain possession. Ballymena however show they mean business and quickly turn over the ball in the 22 and with some quick hands find themselves crossing the line and scoring in the left corner after just a few mins of play. Conversion is missed score 5-0 after 4 mins.
Letterkenny kick off through their outhalf Kaymin Shortt and Ballymena knock on and give Letterkenny their first scrum on the 10 meter line. Ben feeds the scrum and gets quick ball out to Kaymin who opts for the chip over the top and he chases his own chip up to the line but Ballymena are able to get there first and carry the ball over the line where Kaymin secures the 5 meter scrum.
Letterkenny unfortunately drive to far in the scrum and the penalty is awarded to Ballymena who clear their lines on this occasion. Ballymena continue to mount the pressure and make their way back into the Letterkenny half, but again some fine play by the Letterkenny forwards who have now settled into the game, turnover the ball and get it out to Kaymin who again puts boot to ball with a huge Garryowen that is chased down by Brian McGettigan who takes out the Ballymena player and steals back the ball in the tackle.
Ballymena continue to put the pressure on Letterkenny and get another turnover this time they run the ball out their back line and are rewarded with another try in the corner. The conversion is good this time and the score after 10 mins of play is 12 – 0.

Letterkenny take the kick off and are quick on the chase and get awarded a penalty for their efforts on the 22, Ben quickly taps it and the forwards with some great mauling and quick tight passing get to within a couple of meters of the line, the game is then stopped for what appeared to be a head injury to a Ballymena player and he is force off leaving the teams temporarily at 14 apiece as Ballymena only had 15 players available on the day. Letterkenny have a scrum 5 meters out and it wheels though 180 degrees and they are given the put in again, they quickly run it out through the hands to Finn Nicholas on the wing but he is fouled short of the line and awarded a penalty, the Ballymena team through some indiscipline push one of the Letterkenny players and the ref awards a penalty try under the posts. Score 12 – 7 after 15 mins of play.
From the Ballymena KO they manage to win the ball and one of their big forwards is on the charge but is deemed to lead with the elbow giving Letterkenny the chance to clear their lines once more.
Both teams for the next 10 mins give it their all with some fine displays from forwards and backs alike, it is end to end stuff with everyone getting involved. Ballymena get back up to Letterkenny 22 and are awarded a penalty of their own and they kick for touch. They win the lineout and form the maul and one of their forwards peels of the back and charges over for their third try on the day in the left corner. The conversion is missed leaving the score at halftime 17 – 7.

Kaymin gets the second half underway and Ballymena come at Letterkenny again, however the forwards do a great job of holding up the runner and stealing the ball back, the ball is fed out to Kaymin who feeds Brian who makes another 5 meters and feeds the ball to Leon who does well to keep possession and makes a few meters of his own before popping the ball to Kaymin on his outside and he goes on one of his runs showing some fine side steps and beats several Ballymena players to run under the posts for Letterkennys second of the day which he converts and brings the score to 17 – 14 after just 2 mins of the second half.

Again both teams display some great rugby and make the game a great spectacle for the supporters, with end to end running from both teams and some superb tackling put in by players on both sides.
Ballymena are next to capitalize and score another try after 7 mins of play, the conversion is missed and the score is 22 – 14.
For the next 10 mins Letterkenny are forced to play with 13 against 15 as Emmet takes a knock and takes some time to recover on the side lines. Letterkenny continue to battle hard with some big tackles from Eoin Parkinson and Dan Geoghegan as they continue to spur on their fellow forwards, the Letterkenny backline also continue to play very well with Kaymin showing some great variance in play though both passing out wide and some fine kicks over the top, with fellow backs, Leon, Brian, Jason and Finn all getting involved.
Ballymena however continue to show some fine moves and get some of their big players into space with the ball and Letterkenny are on the back foot, the pressure is again rewarded with another try to Ballymena after 18 mins of play bringing the score to 29 – 14 after a successful conversion.
Letterkenny don’t give up and continue to mount the pressure themselves getting to within meters of the line on at least 3 more occasions and spending the next 15 mins of the game camped in the Ballymena 22. But breaks from Dean, Mathew and Ben Hopkins are all stopped short of the line.
Letterkenny run out of time and the final score remains at 29 – 14.
A great game to watch and a big thank you to all the lads who put in a fine effort on the day, also thanks to the coaches and supporters who travelled on the day.

Players player of the Match on the day was Kaymin Shortt with second going to Eoin Parkinson and third place to Dan Geoghegan.

Match details

Match date

Sat 12 Oct 2019

Kickoff

10:00

Team overview

Ballymena 29 - 14 Letterkenny U18s