It was always going to be difficult for Dungannon to follow the high of winning promotion to AIL 2A in the final play-off against Navan the week before and so it proved against Div 1A side Ballynahinch. As always, Dungannon put up a good fight, but further injuries to the Dungannon squad and tired bodies from the AIL play-off games, saw Ballynahinch run out comfortable winners in the Senior Cup Final at Kingspan Stadium.
Ballynahinch took the lead after 2 mins with a well worked try down the left wing, but Dungannon replied with a Ben McCaughey penalty after. 5 minutes. Dungannon enjoyed sustained periods of possession but despite setting up good attacking positions, were unable to break down the Ballynahinch defence and turn the pressure into points. Ballynahinch replied with a penalty and unconverted try to leave the score 15 -3 to Ballynahinch at half time.
As the second half progressed, Ballynahinch started to take control of the set pieces leading to Dungannon conceding penalties, which Ballynahinch kicked to the corners. From the ensuing lineouts Ballynahinch executed catch and drives to score to two converted tries. With a comfortable lead and with both teams tiring, Ballynahinch started to move the ball wider and showed some good off-loading to score a further three converted tries in the final 10 minutes, to comfortably win the Senior Cup by 50 points to 3.
This was Dungannon’s first defeat since December 2024 and the squad and coaching team can take huge pride in their performances and resilience during the past season and look forward with confidence to next season in Division 2A.