Instonians move closer to promotion after AIL Division 2A victory over Corinthians

Paul Pritchard’s side outscored the men from Galway by five tries to two taking the maximum five points from the game and denied the visitors anything to open up a nine-point gap over the chasing pack.

Pritchard hailed the 31-12 victory as one of the best during his tenure in the Shaw’s Bridge hotseat.

“Realistically it was a must-win for both teams, both are busting to win it to get to the top of the table – it was really good because they are a good side,” said Pritchard.

“They came up here with confidence but for us it was trying to put pressure on them right from the first instance and try to make them make mistakes and not let them play their game the way that they do.

“In terms of performances since I have been here at the club that is one of the best that we have put in. To put a team that gets bonus points every week down to two scores and keep them to five points for so long was absolutely outstanding.

“It’s good for us in the league to get five points and they get zero, it’s been a really good day, great performance, really happy.”

Pritchard and the rest of the coaching staff hatched the perfect game plan.

“We knew how they wanted to play,” he said. “They like to go wide and we knew if we could pressure them as much as possible we can get our check zone up and hunt wide, and that is what we worked on during the week.

“Pressure was the big thing for us this week and the lads did it for 80 minutes and they just kept going. You could see how shattered they were coming off the pitch.

“It was a really complete performance on both sides of the ball. In terms of our attack, playing field position and making smart decisions, I don’t think there was one bad decision made in getting into the right areas of the pitch.

“I think we probably set a standard for ourselves. We go into the Banbridge game which is our match in hand, and it is important that we don’t let that standard drop.”

Pritchard is confident if Inst can reproduce that level of performance in their remaining games they will be promoted.

“As much as we are happy with everything and we praised the lads after the game, we’ve got to look at first things first and that is Banbridge on Saturday,” he said.

"If we don’t do the same again performance-wise it makes it a different picture but a team that plays like that, we should be able to get it wrapped up.”

Mark Mairs, Ruairi O’Farrell, Marty Vorster, Bradley McNamara and Max Preston got the Instonians tries.

Elsewhere, Banbridge beat Ballymena 30-25 at Rifle Park.

There was a valuable bonus point win for City of Armagh in Division 1A.

Sam Cunningham crossed twice while Andy Willis and Jonny Morton got a try each in the 31-29 victory over title-chasing Terenure.

Rocky Olsen added 11 points with the boot as Chris Parker’s side opened up a seven-point gap over ninth-placed UCD.

Ballynahinch kept their playoff hopes alive with a 17-12 win at Garryowen.

In 1B Queen’s suffered a 28-7 defeat at Garryowen.

Dungannon edged the Tryone derby in 2B, beating Clogher Valley 21-18. Rainey beat Malahide while Malone lost at Galwegians.

In 2C Belfast Harlequins lost 25-22 at home to Clonmel while Ballyclare picked up a bonus point win over Omagh.