St Mary's 21 Ballymena - 15:All-Ireland League: There was a touch of role reversal at Templeville Road on Saturday.Ballymena have twice pilfered victories in tight finishes against Shannon and Lansdowne, while St Mary's College were pickpocketed in injury-time against Dungannon and Garryowen.
This time, it was a St Mary's late flourish which won the day. A try from hooker Matt Duggan, converted by Barry Lynn five minutes into time, suggested that luck over a season may even itself out.
The game made for compelling viewing, the grandstand finish aside, littered as it was with controversial moments. Two of the St Mary's tries were hotly disputed by the visitors.
Ballymena coach Tony D'Arcy was perfectly positioned behind the posts to suggest that excellent left wing John McWeeney's grounding of the ball was more basketball than rugby. Ballymena's fine young second row, Matt McCullough, was adamant he had both arms under the ball when Duggan was alleged to have touched down, an assertion supported by his incensed reaction when the try was awarded.
Referee Seamus Flannery was not in the same post code as the try scorer. It was that sort of day for the official whose poor positioning at times led to some lapses in the application of the laws.
In mitigation, he didn't get much help from his touch judges with the result that there was a niggling undercurrent to the play.
Twice the opposing front rows exchanged pleasantries, twice the touch judges flagged and on both occasions there was no more than a finger wagging. This allied to some indiscriminate shoeing at rucks kept the contest heated right up until the final whistle.
St Mary's started assuredly and their first try on seven minutes was a beauty. Lynn executed a neat reverse flick to the trailing McWeeney coming off his blindside wing, the latter's slaloming run taking him past all bar the last tackler. He still had the physique to take the tackle on his own terms and offload to the supporting Kieran Lewis, who crossed for a well worked try. Lynn converted.
Ballymena were struggling to get a foothold in the game, partially attributable to Paul Shields being on a different wavelength to his jumpers at the lineout, a state of affairs which, to his credit, the Ulster hooker had rectified by the interval.
Outhalf Adam Larkin scuffed a couple of penalty opportunities, converting just one from four opportunities in the first half.
The St Mary's second try came on 17 minutes to put them 14-3 ahead, prop Brian Moran and Duggan making the hard yards, McWeeney squeezing past two tacklers on his way in under the posts.
The start of the second half didn't appear any more promising for the visitors. John Ryan was dominant in the lineout, Shane Jennings a thorn in the loose and the entire St Mary's pack were hitting rucks hard and turning over possession.
The home side had three glorious try scoring chances, Moran fumbled three yards from the line with no one to beat and Dave Clare did nothing for the image of props with his buffalo charge for the line with five team-mates outside him and just two defenders.
Ballymena emerged unscathed and on 47 minutes redefined the contest with a fine individual try from McCullough, a neat dummy and good pace transfixing the St Mary's cover.
Larkin added the conversion and suddenly at 14-10 it was a different game. St Mary's fumbled from one calamity to the next, with Ballymena's ball retention and option taking improving appreciably.
They fully deserved the try from Matt Waterhouse on 72 minutes, the centre scrambling over close to the corner but there was to be one final twist. Lynn launched a long penalty that hopped into touch a couple of metres from the Ballymena line; a lineout and three rucks later and Duggan was burrowing in for glory.
St Mary's outside chances of the play-off still linger while for Ballymena, despite dropping from second to third place, they should remain at the business end of affairs for the remaining five weeks.
Scoring sequence: 7 mins: Lewis try, Lynn conversion, 7-0; 14 mins: Larkin penalty, 7-3; 17 mins: McWeeney try, Lynn conversion, 14-3. Half-time: 14-3. 47 mins: McCullough try, Larkin conversion, 14-10; 72 mins: Waterhouse try, 14-15. 85 mins: Duggan try, Lynn conversion, 21-15.
ST MARY'S: J Norton; C McPhillips, K Lewis, G Gannon (capt), J McWeeney; B Lynn, S Keogh; B Moran, M Duggan, D Clare; G Logan, J Ryan; E Keane, C Potts, S Jennings. Replacements: P Coyle for Clare 48 mins; J Ellis for Keane 73 mins.
BALLYMENA: S Young; J Topping, R Aioni, M Waterhouse, A Maxwell; A Larkin, A Monson; N McKernan, P Shields, B Young; M Blair, M McCullough; N McMillan, R Nelson (capt), J Taggart. Replacements: P Rodgers for McKernan h-time; P Spence for Monson 62 mins; D Topping for Aioni 64 mins; D O'Kane for Taggart 67 mins.
Referee: S Flannery (Munster).
