Injury-time drama helps Ballyclare book All Ireland League spot

Coach Mike Orchin-McKeever is relishing the challenge of being a senior club following the Navan success.

“It means we can offer a different opportunity and a different challenge of rugby for moving forward in the town,” he said. “We’ll have kids that come through mini-rugby, youth rugby, school rugby and know that we are an All Ireland club.

“It gives us a new challenge and it is high reward for the effort the guys have put in. Hard work and dedication has been put in for years...coming out of lockdown we’ve had three seasons with six finals and winning five of them, that is real high-pressure environment. That is a real credit to the bond, the connection of the guys and the environment we have created together and that is what stands by them so well when it comes to crunch minutes and crunch moments of decision-making.”

Despite having a 16-point lead at half-time, Ballyclare needed McBride’s heroics at the death.

“I didn’t think we’d be at that stage in injury-time after having a 23-7 lead, we had a fantastic opening first half,” said Orchin-McKeever. “The defence was well-organised, they were making good reads, they were scanning people well for the right people, they were sticking pretty well in their tackles.

"Then there was just that bit of momentum shift in the second half. As a Man Utd fan it was a real Sheringham/Solskjaer moment to finish it off with the captain Joel McBride coming up trumps.

“We’ve had a couple of those moments, we had a real dog fight against Enniskillen in the league game, the boys went 21 phases in injury-time for Matty McDowell to nudge a penalty and all those moments take you to what we did on Saturday.”

Orchin-McKeever had special praise for his skipper.

“He leads by example in how he speaks, how he performs, he’s outstanding and it probably was a real movie cliché moment that he got the try,” he said. “Joel is an absolute superstar for us. It’s a young squad...David Gillispie first year out of school has won the All Ireland Junior Cup, the league and he just been promoted to All Ireland League rugby and he has only missed two games this season. At the end of the scale, you have Ricky Lutton, unbelievable 80 minutes on Saturday, has played through injuries and the commitment they have for each other is just outstanding.”

The coach is looking forward to travelling to new places in Division 2C and being reacquainted with some familiar ones.

“I had a couple of seasons with Belfast Harlequins in the old Division 1, so it will be unbelievable to take the club that you have put nine years into and build the structure and the environment around on a few road trips to teams that really don’t know us,” he said. “Make new relationships and leave your club plaque in away venues, the alickadoos, the oldies, the men who have been part of the club for years...your Peter Caldwells, your Eddie Simms, let them go and have yarns and pre-match meals with new people telling the same stories they have told for years but they become new stories to new people.”​​​​