Virginia brought their unbeaten run into this game against their nearest rivals Ballymena. In what was a repeat of the first fixture in Ballymena, this was a tight affair. The previous game saw Virginia run out victors by 4 tries to 1 but that didnt reflect how close these teams were on the pitch.

The game started with both sets of forwards carry it up the middle of the pitch on multiple occasions with the ball being turned over quite frequently by players picking and going on their own and being isolated after the tackle. The referee quite righly pinged any suggestion of holding and Virginia coughed up a lot of possession. Ballymena kept tapping and passing to their big ball carriers whilst virginia mixed it up. One such penalty saw virginia go for the line only to cough the ball up in the ensuing lineout. Shortly thereafter it was Virginias turn to steal from a lineout inside the Ballymena 22 and Darragh Kellett gratefully snaffled the ball and powered over the line to score an unconverted try.

The rest of the first half continued with both teams losing possession in the middle of the pitch with neither making much headway until Ballymena eventually started marching towards the Virginia line. Their big number 8 carried from yet another penalty but was chopped down by Ayrton and Eoghan, both of whom incidentally did that all morning much to the delight of the line. Virginia won a turnover to keep their line intact at the end of the first half.

Second half saw a reshuffle of the backline with Isaac going into the backrow in place of Evan, Cillian came in at 9 whilst Tom dropped to 13.

The second half continued where the first half left off with both teams conceding penalty after penalty as the both sets of forwards insisted on bring the ball back into traffic whilst the wings stood watching on in acres of space.

Ballymena switched their point of attack a couple of times with their number 10 creating room for himself in the Virginia 22 to set up their big ball carrying number 8 only for Virginia to repeatedly repel the attacks. Virginia cleared again but conceded a scrum in their 22 & eventually the ball came to the side and Ballymena scored a converted try.

Time was slipping by for Virginia and they could not get a foothold in the Ballymena half of the pitch and again continued to carry big while the wings stood in acres of space. The big carries took its toll on James, who had a mighty game and Oscar came in for him in the back row midway through the second half.

Line breaks for our backline were as rare as hens teeth until evntually Virginia did get one through Tom who made it from the Virginia 10 metre line to be stopped short metres 5 from the line by a last ditch defensive tackle. From the ensuing ruck Eoin Clarke picked and drove but was held up over the try line.

Ballymenas goal line drop out landed safely in Cillians arms and as he collected the ball he switched diagonally (into space) towards the far corner. With all of the Ballymena and Virginia forwards still in the opposite corner he popped the ball to Pat who still having work to do made a beeline for the corner and dove in unopposed to score Virginias second try.

For the remaining 5 minutes neither side were able to make possession count and the game finished 10-7 to Virginia. There is very little separating these two teams and with the bounce of a ball or different decision making on the field by either team could have seen the score go the other way. Still it's another win for the boys, coming from behind again to show their resilience and they now sit clear on the top of the table with 12 wins from 12.

Next up another big test with a game away against Rainey in Magherafelt.

Well done lads.