'We are confident' - Instonians kick off AIL after promotion with opening win
Instonians made light work of stepping a division as they began life in the second tier of the All Ireland League with a 32-13 win over Naas at Shaw’s Bridge.
Paul Pritchard’s side are chasing a fifth consecutive promotion and made the prefect start in Division 1B by outscoring their visitors from Kildare by five tries to one.
“That win relieves any pressure or any feelings we had about going into the league, getting a bonus point at home was like ‘yeah, we can do this’," said Pritchard. “It is that little bit higher than we have played as a group, to win the way we did at home against Naas not only shows that we belong here, but we should be pushing in this league as hard as we can.
“I think naturally there was a bit of pressure going into the game and we could feel it, you’re going into a new league and 1B feels a lot bigger than when we went into 2A.
“I said to the lads at half-time we’re in third gear and that was probably like the moment getting to us a little bit...the second half we felt like we were just able to play with confidence, there were a lot of breaks in the first half and things just didn’t stick and we were maybe chasing it a little bit and trying too much.
“We are confident and it is just keeping that confidence up and knowing that we can go toe-to-toe with anyone – especially at home.
"You can’t ask for any more, we came across a pretty good Naas team...to come out and concede two and score five tries was outstanding.
“Defence is something that we have identified that we need to be a lot stronger this year and so far it has been good.”
Queen’s picked up a losing bonus point at Highfield while City of Armagh lost 21-12 away to Old Welsey.
In the top flight, Ballynahinch staved off a Yong Munster fightback to claim a 35-33 bonus point win.
Banbridge and Ballymena both suffered defeats in Division 2A while Dungannon – after last year’s promotion – made a winning start, claiming a bonus point victory at Greystones.
In Division 2B, Clogher Valley edged the Ulster derby 15-13 at Rainey. Malone had a 26-17 bonus point win over Enniscorthy.
There was a win for Belfast Harlequins in 2C, while Ballyclare picked up two bonus points in their defeat at Clonmel.