Mason drop goal denies brave DLSP

Noting a stark absence of communication between the home players at Eaton Park on Saturday, it seemed especially ironic that Cable & Wireless happened to be their sponsors. Those sort of stray thoughts tend to intrude when the standard of play fails to sustain the attention.

Still, the faithful were in full voice when Simon Mason dropped a late, late goal, seconds from the end. For there are few sweeter experiences in sport than an unexpected victory.

DLSP didn't deserve to lose and the home coach, Andre Bester, acknowledged as much when admitting to his counterpart Philip Werahiko afterwards: "We stole it from you."

All of which came as poor consolation to the DLSP coach, who had insisted to his players that being competitive would not be good enough. And midway through the second half, it seemed certain they would get the start they wanted.

By that stage, however, the fates had already conspired against them. It had to do with a Ballymena substitution in the second minute of the second half, when Andy Graham came in for flank forward Jason Taggert. It meant Dion O' Cuinneagain moving to number eight.

Though he had arrived at Eaton Park for his first training session only the previous Tuesday, O' Cuinneagain's competitive instincts suddenly came to the fore. The clear scrummaging superiority which had already been established, now began to adopt real purpose.

With O Cuinneagain controlling matters from the rear, the tight five did their work in a fourth successive close scrum, in the 51st minute. DLSP were shoved emphatically over their own line, leaving scrum-half Mark Edwards with the simple task of scoring the try.

Eight minutes from the end, the Ballymena scrum achieved similar control inside their opponent's 25, forcing the concession of a penalty. And when Mason landed an easy kick, the sides were level at 11-11. One minute from time, Mason missed with a 50-yard penalty attempt and from the resultant drop-out, he kicked the winning points from 35 yards' range.

Although disappointed, DLSP were admirably adventurous. They successfully spoiled Ballymena up front for much of the match and with greater support for their splendid full back Shane Stephens, might have had more than one try.

Stephens made a particularly impressive burst through the middle in the 18th minute. Then there was the simple, 25-yard penalty attempt which Dave O'Riordan pushed wide of an upright seconds later.

For their part, Ballymena look to have the players to sustain a worthwhile challenge for the full campaign, unlike the collapse of last season. But there is much work to be done, if full advantage is to be gained from the acquisition of such as South African centre Rhys Botha, who has played Super 12 rugby for Western Province with O Cuinneagain.

"We looked like a side that hadn't trained together," admitted Bester. "So it was a very good result in the circumstances." Indeed it was.

Scoring sequence: 25 mins: D O'Riordan penalty 0-3, 48: A Devitt try 0-8, 51: M Edwards try 5-8, 63: O'Riordan penalty 5-11, 66: S Mason penalty 8-11, 72: Mason penalty 11-11, 80: Mason drop goal 14-11.

Ballymena: S Mason; J Topping, S Stewart, R Botha, J Park; S Broughton, M Edwards; N McKernan, A Gamble, W McAllister, G Longwell, M Blair, D O' Cuinneagain, D Topping, J Taggert. Replacements: A Graham for Taggert (42 mins), B Young for McKernan (70 ), R Fisher for Gamble (70).

DLSP: S Stephens; S Walsh, N O'Riordan, M Cunningham, E Devitt; D O'Riordan, B Hogan; K Condron, S O'Donnell, N Condron, K Wheelock, R Frost, T Giles, D O'Brien, D Maher. Replacement: J Corr for Devitt (80 mins).

Referee: T Redmond (ARLB).