With a plethora of Junior Club Finals and Women’s AIL Cup Finals our coverage of the AIL 1B hasn’t been what we would have hoped.

It’s been a couple of rounds since we had a good look at this competition and it’s been Ulster club, Ballynahinch, and Leinster outfits, Naas and St Mary’s College, that have been leading the way with two win’s apiece. Naas doing particularly well to bang out two big wins on the road.

The results can be viewed by clicking below.

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AIL1B WEEK 16 RESULTS (23 MARCH)

BALLYNAHINCH	34	27	OLD BELVEDERE
BANBRIDGE	21	42	NAAS
MALONE	16	7	CITY OF ARMAGH
OLD WESLEY	29	13	BUCCANEERS
ST MARY’S COLLEGE	74	15	BALLYMENA

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AIL1B WEEK 17 RESULTS (6 APRIL)

BALLYMENA	24	47	NAAS
BUCCANEERS	20	24	BANBRIDGE
CITY OF ARMAGH	19	27	BALLYNAHINCH
OLD BELVEDERE	30	24	OLD WESLEY
ST MARY’S COLLEGE	38	36	MALONE

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This has left the league, going into the final week, as follows.

Team	P	W	D	PD	TB	PTS
Ballynahinch	17	11	1	50	6	52
Old Wesley	17	10	1	96	7	49
Naas	17	9	1	62	10	48
Malone	17	9	0	51	9	45
St Mary’s College	17	9	0	40	9	45
Old Belvedere	17	8	1	14	10	44
Banbridge	17	8	0	0	10	42
City of Armagh	17	8	2	-1	6	42
Buccaneers	17	6	0	-53	12	36
Ballymena	17	4	0	-259	5	21
Totals	170	82	6	0	46	424

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[accordion title=”View our Previous Prediction!” load=”hide”]We like our stats here on The Front Row Union and after Week 15 we predicted the following finish.

AIL 1B PREDICTED FINISH
Team	% Current Form	%Home Form	%Away Form	Predicted Pts
Ballynahinch	72%	73%	40%	52
Old Wesley	60%	46%	68%	51
City of Armagh	68%	73%	37%	51
Malone	44%	69%	38%	47
Naas	44%	60%	40%	45
Old Belvedere	64%	73%	23%	45
Banbridge	44%	57%	43%	44
Buccaneers	64%	53%	40%	43
St Mary’s College	40%	80%	18%	42
Ballymena	32%	46%	13%	26

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Ballynahinch are in charge of their own destiny with a win ensuring them a top of the table finish. In fact they need three points, so a high scoring draw, picking up a try bonus point, would do. However I’m sure they are only considering a win. 😉

Old Wesley and Naas will be going all out for bonus point wins, against Armagh and Buccaneers respectively, should there be any slip ups at Ballymacarn Park. Armagh have struggled of late but are secure in the league and Buccs are already consigned to a second from bottom finish and play offs.

While Hinch, would be favourites to retain top spot they, perhaps, face the most difficult match as their  opponents St Mary’s, alongside Malone, still have a sniff of a top two finish should Old Wesley and Naas slip up. For St Mary’s it’s a bonus point win or bust so it should be a lively enough game.

This weekend’s fixtures are as follows.

Ballynahinch	–	St Mary’s College
Banbridge	–	Old Belvedere
Malone	–	Ballymena
Naas	–	Buccaneers
Old Wesley	–	City of Armagh

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AIL 1B Leading points scorers in association with Samurai Rugby Gear

Old Wesley and Naas will also be fighting it out to see who tops the Leading Points Scorer table with Peter Osborne (Naas) two points ahead of Rory Stynes (Old Wesley) as we go into the last round of fixtures.

PLAYER	CLUB	T	C	P	DG	TOT
Peter Osborne	Naas	5	31	23	0	156
Rory Stynes	Old Wesley	3	32	25	0	154
Tim Small	Ballymena	2	24	23	0	127
Steve Crosbie	Old Belvedere	3	29	18	0	127
Luke Carty	Buccaneers	0	27	20	0	114
Conor Dean	St Mary’s College	2	18	12	0	82
Cormac Fox	City of Armagh	0	14	17	0	79
Adam Doherty	Banbridge	0	18	14	0	78
Rory Campbell	Malone	4	11	11	0	75
Jack Keating	Old Belvedere	13	0	0	0	65
Richard Reaney	Ballynahinch	3	6	9	0	54

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We had to extend the table to include, league leaders, Ballynahinch’s leading points scorer, Richard Reaney, who lags 100 points behind the top two in this category. Hinch have used three kickers throughout the competition but their conversion rate (conversions/tries) is the second lowest in the league at 57.8%.

Hinch, however have won more games than anyone else in the competition, to date, which would point towards their ability to find a way to win being more important than banging over every kickable chance?

AIL 1B Leading try scorers in association with Samurai Rugby Gear

I think we can say that the competition for leading try scorer is a done deal for this season with  Jack Keating (Old Belvedere) five tries clear of the chasing pack with an impressive 13 tries after Week 17.

Player	Club	Tries
Jack Keating	Old Belvedere	13
Ross Adair	Ballynahinch	8
Peter Cromie	Banbridge	8
Andrew Ellis	Naas	8
Fionn Higgins	Naas	8
Rhys O’Donnell	Ballynahinch	7
Conor Field	Banbridge	7
Aaron Cairns	Ballynahinch	6
Shane Layden	Buccaneers	6
Peter Hastie	Naas	6
Paul Harte	Old Wesley	6
Hugo Conway	St Mary’s College	6

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Two of the top three sides, Ballynahinch and Naas, have three players each in the top four totals, which gives us the opportunity of a shout out for FRU Favourite Ross Adair (Hinch) who didn’t join the AIL action until week 7. Adair’s eight tries over ten rounds have helped push the Ballymacarn outfit to top of the table.

We’ll have a full breakdown of all the teams individual scorers after the final round.

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