Dungannon travelled to Ballymacarn Park with a young squad and kicked off in dry but breezy conditions with wind advantage in the first half.
Dungannon had early advantage after 2 mins when the Ballynahinch loose head was yellow carded for a high tackle. During this opening period Dungannon enjoyed sustained periods of possession, with the line out functioning well and the ball moving through the hands, but despite setting up several good attacking positions, Dungannon were unable to break down the Ballynahinch defence and turn the pressure into points. Dungannon opened the scoring on 14 mins with a penalty in front of the posts slotted over by Ben McCaughey. Ballynahinch replied with a converted try on 16 minutes followed by another converted try on 28 mins. Yellow cards in quick succession for Paddy Conroy and Adam Milligan reduced Dungannon to 13 men for the final 10 mins of the half, but the committed Dungannon defence held out, to leave the score 14 -3 to Ballynahinch at half time.
With the wind on their backs in the second half, Ballynahinch were able to take control of possession and keep Dungannon under sustained pressure, which eventually told with Ballynahinch scoring a try on 50 mins. With a comfortable lead, Ballynahinch started to move the ball wider and showed some good off-loading to score a further 5 tries and 3 conversions in the final quarter. Dungannon did enjoy spells of possession and to launch attacks, most noticeably when Ben McCaiughey was stopped 2m from the Ballynahinch line but were unable to breach the well organised Ballynahinch defence. The match ended with the final score 50-3 to Ballynahinch.
Dungannon will learn and take lessons from this defeat to their Division 1A opponents, as the squad comes together and builds for the first AIL Division 2A game away to Greystones on 27 September.