Craig Urges Ballynahinch To Show ‘1A Standards’ In Bateman Cup Semi-Final

There is a certain romance to cup rugby that never quite fades. Something raw and elemental about knockout days, the kind of Saturday that feels heavier in the air, when the stakes are higher and silverware is almost within reach.

For Ballynahinch, this Saturday’s Energia Bateman Cup semi-final against Sligo carries exactly that sense of occasion. They have never won the Bateman Cup, but were winners of the All-Ireland Cup in 2009 before the format with the four provincial Cup winners returned the following year.

For a club steeped in community and history, with their senior Men’s team building a consistent presence in the upper reaches of the Energia All-Ireland League, that gap without an All-Ireland trophy feels like unfinished business.

As they prepare to welcome Sligo to Ballymacarn Park on Saturday (kick-off 2.30pm), there is a growing feeling that something is building again – a blend of familiarity, ambition and maybe even destiny.

Adam Craig knows what that means better than most. The Ballynahinch head coach is part of the furniture now – ten years as a player, and five in the coaching hot seat – and has a deep-rooted sense of what it means to wear the club colours.

Looking forward to the last-four clash with Sligo, he told IrishRugby.ie: “I think never underestimate anybody in a game of rugby. There’s an emotional element of playing cup rugby in semi-finals, but hopefully we’ve got the tools to get over the line there.

“It’s been a while since we’ve got into an All-Ireland Cup final, so we’re pretty excited about the challenge of trying to get there.”

Ballynahinch fell at the semi-final hurdle in September 2023, losing 17-14 to Young Munster at home. Reaching the final this season would be a significant step, especially as their Division 1A rivals Lansdowne and Terenure College have shared the trophy these last four years.

The sense of anticipation feels particularly welcome after a disappointing result in the league last week. Ballynahinch’s heavy defeat to Terenure at home was a blow, not only because of the 52-12 scoreline but because of where it happened.

Ballymacarn Park is a venue that has formed its reputation on grit and resilience. There is something about the ground itself that carries meaning. It is a community venue in the truest sense, where the club’s minis learn their craft and the local faces mingle on a match day.

For any visiting team to come there and dominate, it stings, with Craig reflecting: “Very disappointed, just probably in how we performed.

“Terenure are obviously a good side and had a couple of good releases from Leinster there that certainly helped them, but they capitalised a lot on our mistakes and that’s probably why the scoreline got away from us.

“We looked at it there last night and there’s certainly a few things that we have to get right, not just for this weekend but moving forward.

“We pride ourselves on Ballymacarn Park being a tough place to come. For someone to come to our own patch and do that to us, it certainly hurts a lot more than maybe a few others.

“It hasn’t happened a lot in my time at the club, and certainly we’ll be making sure that it doesn’t happen again.”

That honesty is part of what defines Craig’s tenure. There is no sugar-coating, no empty talk of ‘learning experiences’ without substance.

He is a coach who demands accountability but pairs it with perspective. He knows that in Division 1A, the difference between dominance and disaster from week to week can be paper thin.

“The margins in 1A are so small. We made maybe three or four errors and I think off those three or four errors, Terenure scored and converted. So all of a sudden the scoreline gets away from you in such a short period of time.

“I think they scored maybe three tries in ten minutes and mainly off the back of our errors, so we’ve just mentally got to be a little bit better there and just make sure we look after our own stuff and don’t allow teams to have those opportunities.”

This week offers ‘Hinch a chance to regroup, refresh, and set their sights on something different. They are relishing this cup fixture as they bid to reach the Bateman Cup final after semi-final reversals in 2015, 2016, 2017, and 2023.

Sligo are another well-respected club battling it out in Division 2B, and the reigning Connacht Senior Cup champions will make the journey hoping to stake their own claim, having also fallen at the same semi-final hurdle in their last four attempts.

“Their last couple of (league) results probably haven’t gone their way,” Craig said of Sligo. “So they’ll be looking to rectify that and obviously with our result there last Saturday, we’ve got a point to prove as well.

“We’re pretty excited about playing at home in a cup game and hopefully making that Bateman final in January. I hope there’s a lot of good rugby played on Saturday and that we probably assert our dominance in terms of being in 1A, and having those 1A standards that we try and achieve every Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday.

“If we can do that on Saturday afternoon then I think we’ll be in a really good place.”

Behind that measured focus is a squad built with intention, not flash, but depth, durability, and competition. The Ballynahinch system has long been about more than fifteen starters. It is about the ecosystem of the club, from firsts to seconds, from seasoned veterans to Academy youngsters.

Craig explained: “You’re nearly two sides of the coin, aren’t you? You’re successful and you’re in semi-finals and finals, and we’ve got another final of the Ulster Senior Cup on December 27.

“It’s an extra game, but we’re excited to play in those and we believe we’ve got the squad depth to cope with them. Squad depth is something that we certainly feel like we have this year.

Our J1s, or our second 15, have been going really well in their competition and there’s a lot of lads on a Tuesday and a Thursday night knocking the door and wondering why maybe they aren’t getting selected either on the bench or in the starting team.

“That’s exactly what we want. I think to compete at the top end of 1A you need to have that, and where maybe there’s two or three people every week missing out on maybe the bench spot and to allow you to really compete.

“We’re excited to see some of those guys this weekend and there’ll be a few local guys who have been waiting a while for the jersey, that’ll get an opportunity to perform, so yeah, it’s hopefully going to be an exciting weekend.”

Craig himself once stood in those same boots. The ex-Ireland underage international joined Ballynahinch as a player, worked his way through their system, before moving into coaching. When Brian McLaughlin, their former head coach stepped away, he was a natural successor.

“This is my fifth year with them. One year was Covid-related, so there was groups of ten training and not a lot of matches happening.

“I played at Ballynahinch for ten years and then took on the assistant role underneath Brian, and when he stepped aside, I took on the head coach’s job.

“All our management group, coaching group, is made up of guys who have played at the club. Our two S&C coaches are still playing at the club.

“It’s something we’ve really tried to chase, trying to get that DNA through the management and coaching structures to lead it into the players. Whenever you do win, then maybe it just makes it that little bit sweeter, because it’s not just in the head, but in the heart.”

That culture of homegrown identity is one of the County Down club’s quiet strengths. It builds a sense of trust and accountability that does not have to be spoken.

When Ballynahinch talk about standards, they are not buzzwords. They are lived habits, ingrained in training, in preparation, in how players represent the club during the week.

Craig, who works as a PE teacher and Head of Rugby at Sullivan Upper School in Holywood, sees it as a cycle of investment. Develop people, and the rugby takes care of itself.

Still, for all that stability, he is the first to admit that their league form is not there just yet. “Inconsistent is probably the best word for us so far,” he admitted.

“A great win against Con and then get turned over by Terenure. A good win against Young Munster on the first day, and get turned over by Old Belvedere (in the next round).

“These games offer another opportunity to try and get that consistency to get the stuff right that you want to get right as a rugby team. We’re excited about the fixture this weekend and looking forward to getting that over with us on Saturday.”

For Ballynahinch, it is all there this weekend, the hurt of last week, the hunger for a final place, the heartbeat of a club that still plays for something bigger than itself. On Saturday at Ballymacarn Park, they ill have the chance to turn all of that into something tangible once again.

If Saturday afternoon goes their way, it could mark the start of another special chapter in ‘Hinch’s story, one written not in isolation but as part of a broader continuum.

Many supporters who watched the club’s famous 2009 All-Ireland Cup final win over Cork Constitution still fill the sidelines now. The same pitches where future stars learned their craft still host training for their newest stars. Every win, every performance, ties back to that fabric.

As the weekend approaches, you get the sense that Craig’s focus will not shift. Recovery from the Terenure loss, yes. Improvement in execution, yes. But above all pride, in performance, in place, in people.

“The Bateman, we don’t look at it as something I suppose beneath us or something that we don’t want to try and achieve. The league, yes, is important but certainly we haven’t won an All-Ireland Cup since 2009.

“(An All-Ireland title) has been a long time away from Ballymacarn Park and we’d like to probably rectify that as a squad. Sort of one of our goals this year is to try and make sure that if we are in cup competitions that we’re winning those competitions.

“The league’s important, but certainly the way the squad is they’ve got their eyes set on hopefully a cup final,” added the former back-three player, who coached the Ireland Club XV last season.

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