Derek ​Suffern delight as Queen’s ‘over the line’ in playoff joy with Barnhall win

The students outscored their visitors from Maynooth by three tries to two but had to survive a late onslaught which included a missed penalty deep in injury-time by James Gorham.

Queen’s coach Derek Suffern was delighted to stay in the second tier of the AIL.

“I think if we look at the season as a whole we had a number of tight, tight defeats in games where we felt we could and should have got over the line," said Suffern. “Maybe there was a wee bit of karma in that we did get a wee bit of luck at the back end of the game against a very good Barnhall side.

“To be fair, I thought both sides made hard work of things, there were a lot of errors in the game, a lot of endeavour but it was just good to get over the line and keep ourselves in 1B.

“I think overall as a group, how we conducted ourselves at the back end in our last six fixtures, I think we deserved to stay up.

“I think it is always big to stay in the division you are in and not go down, trying to get promotion out of any division is very hard.

"Like at Queen’s trying to get promotion out of 2A for however many years, it is difficult...you look at Cashel and Barnhall, these teams are trying to do it year in and year out so I think when you get your chance to get up you have to work very hard to stay there.

“Credit to everyone involved in the whole process for Queen’s and especially the partnership we have with Ulster, everyone has worked really hard in the first year that that has happened.

"It wasn’t perfect, there were teething problems.

"But I think it has paid its dividends as we have managed to stay up and now we can move on to bigger and better things next season, hopefully.

“Going to places like Garryowen, Belvedere, St Mary’s...none of the guys had ever played in Garryowen before or even been there before and they will learn a massive amount and they will learn a lot even from the pressure situation against Barnhall.

"Young guys only out of school playing in 1B, they have all stepped up manfully and, hopefully, next year that experience will stand them in good stead.”

Winger Ben McFarlane landed the winning penalty for the students.

“Ben has been a very good kicker for us at the back end of the season,” he said. “He is a very good pressure kicker as well and he showed from his school career, he puts a lot of hard work in and it doesn’t come easy.

"He puts a lot of time in on the grass doing it and, fair play to him, it was a brilliant kick.”

Winger Ryan Street’s unconverted try put Queen’s in front and two Gorham penalties gave Barnhall the lead. Josh Stevens’ try, converted by McFarlane, gave Queen’s a 12-6 half-time advantage.

Conor Dugann’s converted try put the visitors back in front and Joe Hopes replied for the students. The lead changed hands again as Greg Edogun went over for an unconverted try. McFarlane landed the winning penalty with the clock ticking into the red before the late drama when Barnhall wasted chances to win.

Bangor lost their senior status and were relegated from Division 2C off a 19-14 home defeat by Monkstown.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​