Ballymena see off Lansdowne

Lansdowne 8 Ballymena 12

Ballymena made it two wins from two league outings but left it late, the 77th minute, to take the lead as the boot of Dirkie Strydom saw off the challenge of Lansdowne.

On the rain-swept back pitch at headquarters the conditions dictated an unstylish affair with handling errors the order of the afternoon yet Brian O’Mahoney lit up the affair with the games only try to leave the home side leading 5-3 at the break.

On the few occasions Lansdowne did get the ball wide they looked capable of scoring. Their first real menacing attack led to the try. Matthew Leek accelerated through the smallest of gaps in the Ulster men’s defence before good continuity from Karl Becker send O’Mahoney over in the corner.

Four minutes into the second half Lansdowne extended their lead to five points from a Leek penalty. He was kicking in the absence of O’Mahoney who was still sitting in the bin due to a first half indiscretion.

Strydom reduced the deficit with 13 minutes remaining to 6-8 setting up a grandstand finish. Ballymena's patience was rewarded with three minutes remaining when former Leinster captain Liam Toland’s use of the boot gave away a kickable penalty from thirty yards, the South African centre calmly added the points to put Ballymena in the lead for the first time.

Lansdowne poured forward in search of a score only to be hit with another late Strydom penalty to seal the points for Tony D’Arcy’s side.

Lansdowne: M Leek; A O’Connell, A Magro, K Kennedy, K Becker, B O’Mahoney, S Whelan, J Lyne (A McKeen 66), R Fallon, E Bohan, S O’Connor, B Cusack, S Rooney, L Toland, A McCullen.

Ballymena: M Waterhouse; A Maxwell, D Strydom, H Jones, A Maxwell, I Humphreys, A Munson, S McConnell, P Shields (S Rodgers 55), B Young (W McAllister h-t), D O’Kane, M McCullough, A Graham (D McCarthy 53), J Taggart, R Nelson.