The Front Row Union Sport - Schools Friendly: Campbell College 27 Ballymena Academy 27

Campbell College, Belfast entertained Ballymena Academy at Fox’s Field on Saturday morning in a schools friendly.

Despite an early flourish from Ballymena, the home side enjoyed the better of the opening quarter as they rushed to a 15 – 0 lead with the strong breeze at their backs.

Jack Bonnar knocked over an early penalty to be quickly followed by an unconverted try from Tom Robinson who barged over from a lineout miscue.

Some good tactical kicking from the home side kept Ballymena pinned in the bottom right corner of Fox’s field and a bit of quick thinking from scrum half Arthur Johnston saw him scamper over following a maul from an attacking line out. Bonner added the extras to push the score out to 15.

Campbell College’s Arthur Johnston sneaks over for a score against Ballymena Academy

Despite the one sided scoreline there wasn’t much between the teams and Ballymena finally got some reward for their efforts after working the ball up-field for Conor Louw to crash over and Ross McKay to covert taking the score to 15 – 7 at the break.

A James Wright charge down led to Ballymena’s second try on resumption and with McKay converting to add to a second half penalty the visitors led by 2 points with the score at 15 – 17.

James Wright charges down a clearance kick to go over for Ballymena

In a ding dong second half the home side edged back in front thanks to a Zac Soloman uncovered try before Josh Drain hit the line for a score converted by McKay. McKay added his second penalty, with ten minutes remaining, to extend the visitors lead to 20 – 27 and as the clock ticked down towards full time it looked as though that would be enough.

However Campbell made one last effort and after a period of pressure on the Ballymena line Danny Williamson dove over out wide.