Ballyclare pride in 'pretty cool record' but pushing for Towns' Cup win

Mike Orchin-McKeever’s side have won the cup twice, lost a final and shared the trophy when the competition couldn’t be completed due to the Covid pandemic.

Ballyclare will face Clogher Valley in this afternoon’s Easter decider at Kingspan Stadium from 4 o’clock.

“The cup matches are refreshing to play in from the pressures of a league match, different competitions give you different opportunities and pressures, the boys enjoy playing knock-out rugby,” said Orchin-McKeever. “Five times of six years with a non-season due to Covid is a pretty cool record but it is probably better to win them.

“It is not that it is taken for granted to play at Kingspan it is a big occasion for the players, family, friends and the club...several will have the experience going there on the big day and there will be a few young lads getting their first opportunity in their first year out of school and under 18 rugby.

"So it will be nice for them to be a part of it and embrace it.

“It is exciting for the supporters to get that ‘day out’ as they refer to it, it is important to be challenging for trophies and hitting finals, I’m quite keen on players getting positive experiences and making memories from them.

“Bringing a trophy back, having a medal and a photograph on the wall is huge for players to look back on for years to come rather than coming out on the losing end of it.”

Clogher beat Ballyclare in the All Ireland Junior Cup final last year, the Co Tyrone side retained that trophy this year, won Qualifying League One and will meet Richmond on Saturday for a place in the senior ranks next season.

“Full credit to Clogher Valley for the season they have had, we’ll go in as underdogs,” said Orchin-McKeever. “They are the high flyers in terms of winning the league and the Junior Cup and then have gone a step further winning the semi-final and have the final to get promotion to the All Ireland League.

“The second XV are very strong, so full credit to them...but we’re excited about taking them on in the final.

“We learned from that experience in the All Ireland Cup final and a few weeks later we knocked them out of the Towns’ Cup that we went on to win.

“This season we went to them and lost and they came to us and lost so you have to learn from those experiences of winning and losing.

“Clogher are beatable, Cooke beat them in the Ulster Junior Cup recently, we both know each other well from having that competitive season.

“They got 85 points out of a possible 90 in the league and we got 80 out of 90...so pretty evenly-matched in the course of a season in the league.

“This is a different competition with different pressures and it is just about winning a game, it is not about bonus point tries or league status.

“They are maybe on a bit of momentum from game-to- game, they have a busy match schedule but we have all had busy match schedules over the season so it is pretty much like- for-like.”