FIRST TURST SENIOR CUP SEMI FINALS
City of Armagh v Malone
Ballymena v Ballynahinch

City of Armagh v Malone

After Round 3 of the UBL City of Armagh were sitting top of Div 2A alongside Malone on 13 points. Since then Armagh have went on to lose their last four UBL leagues games that has seen them slip down to 6th Place – 11 points behind 1st place Malone. Their last win came in the quarter finals of the Senior Cup when they defeated Banbridge 16 – 3 at the Palace Grounds. Malone suffered their first UBL defeat when they lost 20 – 11 at home to Queens Uni last Friday night at Gibson Park to reduce their lead over second place Highfield to one point. In the quarter finals of the Senior Cup Malone defeated Dungannon 32 – 24. When Malone and City of Armagh met in the UBL two weeks ago at Gibson Park Malone won a keenly contested game 28 – 26. Assistant coach Chris Parker has been encouraged by the rugby his Armagh team have played in their four losses in the UBL with the team striving for consistency across the 80 minutes. Division 2A is such a competitive league that if you make mistakes they will be punished by your opponents. The squad has been working hard to reduce errors in training and improve their accuracy in all areas of their game to limit the amount of opportunities they give away to the opposition. For the match against Malone there won’t be too many changes from the team that lost at home to Highfield. Jonny Pollock will come into the squad after recovering from injury. Andrew Willis, Captain Ali Birch and James Hanna remain on the sidelines. Malone Head Coach Paddy Armstrong is expecting another tough game against Armagh and has been impressed by the work done by Willie Faloon so far this season. He is also hoping to give squad players opportunities to play this weekend, but this will again depend on the availability of some players. It will be Thursday before the team is finalised as the coach waits to hear on the availability of players. The coach has been pleased to see the clubs 2nds and 3rds doing so well. Credit for this has to go to the guys who put so much work into getting these teams sorted week in week out…………………………… Ballymena v Ballynahinch

It has been a disappointing start to the season for Ballymena in the UBL losing their four home games including defeats against Ulster neighbours Ballynahinch and Banbridge. Their last home win was against Omagh in the quarter finals of the Senior Cup when they won 37 – 27. Ballynahinch have made it 6/ 7 wins in their last seven games as the team moved up to 2nd place in DIV 1B of the UBL. They have lost two games away from home to Old Belvedere and Banbridge in the UBL. The team face back to back games against league leaders Shannon before the Xmas break on the 9th December. In the quarter finals of the Senior Cup they won 33 – 7 at Bangor. Head coach Andy Graham was disappointed by his teams 27 – 0 defeat at home to Ballynahinch last Friday night. Despite a lot of possession there were too many mistakes made by the players that resulted in turnovers, knock on’s and penalties being conceded. On 5/6 occasions the pack mauled to the line and should have scored tries. Credit has to go to the Ballynahinch team who defended very well. It is frustrating as a coach to see the team doing a lot of good stuff in phase play with the decision making letting them down. Ballymena also suffered a late cry off with prop Chris Cundell ruled out due to flu. It necessitated changes with James Taggart moving into prop and Ryan Matheison starting at hooker with Adam McBurney limited to 40 minutes play. The Ballymena team missed the presence of Brett Herron at out-half to control and manipulate space. His team were naïve, young and inexperienced with too many changes having to be made to the starting team. Ballynahinch Director of Rugby Ronnie Duncan was delighted with the team’s win at Eaton park on Friday night. It was more like a Hinch performance. The team all played well with the pack and the back five very good. Stand in second row Keith Dickson had another great game for the 1st xv. Ballynahinch are expecting a much tighter game on Saturday