Ballymena Academy entertained Royal Belfast Academical Institution on Saturday morning with the home side coming out on top 30 -19 in an entertaining match.

Ballymena took an early lead with a Ross McKay penalty three minutes in, however it was the visitors that applied the early pressure and they were rewarded when Adam Cooke crossed for a converted try.

McKay pulled it back to 6 – 7 four minutes later but Inst extended their lead to 6 – 12, on the 24th minute when Ben Cooke crossed for an unconverted try.

However, the Belfast side seemed to drop their intensity for the remainder of the half with Matthew Corr crossing straight from the restart for a converted try before McKay stepped up to add a penalty to give Ballymena a 16 – 12 lead at the break.

With the stiff breeze at their backs in the second half Ballymena’s kicking game came into effect and, after rebuffing early pressure from Inst, the home side pulled clear with tries from Dean Millar and Andrew Donald in a ten minute burst. Tyler McNeill converted both to give the home team a 30 – 12 lead.

Inst, to their credit, kept plugging away but they didn’t make a breakthrough until late in the game, with Jack Latham crossing  for a converted try, to give a final score of Ballymena Academy 30 RBAI 19.

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