Malone maintained their place at the top of Ail 1B with a hard fought win against, Ulster rivals,  Banbridge on Saturday afternoon at Gibson Park.

The Malone tries came from Nathan Brown in the first half and FRU favourite Peter Cooper in the second, Rory Campbell keeping the scoreboard turning over with three penalties.

Tries from Caleb Montgomery and Peter Cromie, and a conversion by Adam Doherty, gave Banbridge a one point lead going into the break but as Malone turned up the heat in the second half the Bann side were only able to add a Doherty penalty to their total.

MALONE: Jack Owens; Rory Campbell, Josh Pentland, Nathan Brown, Andy Bryans; Callum Smith, Graham Curtis; Peter Cooper, Adam McBurney, Ross Kane, Ryan Clarke, Josh Davidson, Dave Cave, Ross Todd (c) Joe Dunleavy. Replacements: Dan Kerr, Ricky Greenwood, James McAllister, Shane Kelly, Dave McMaster.

BANBRIDGE: Adam Doherty; Conor Field, Andrew Morrison, Jonny Little, Hugo Harbinson; Josh Cromie, Jonny Stewart; Michael Cromie (c), Peter Cromie, Stuart Cromie, Alex Thompson, Caleb Montgomery, Greg Jones, David McCann, Stephen Irvine. Replacements: Corrie Barrett, Callum Reid, Chris Allen, Ethan Harbinson, Ian Porter.

GALLERY BELOW

Picture credit – Richard Owens.