‘It’s About Us, It’s About Our Performance’ – Ballynahinch’s Milligan

Before the crowd gathers, before the lines are marked, before the supporters buses make the trip to the capital, and before Ballynahinch take the field for a history making occasion, there is a moment where everything feels impossibly still.

A breath before the storm. A pause suspended between what the County Down club has been and what it could become. It is a fragile kind of stillness, especially considering the week they have just come through.

Nights of training in storm-force winds that tore across Ballymacarn Park, sessions where passes vanished sideways, voices were swallowed, and players leaned into the gusts as if walking uphill.

Yet somehow, in the roar and the chaos, something settled in this group. Something about enduring that together feels fitting for a Ballynahinch squad preparing to walk into a final they have never reached before.

In the centre of it all stands captain Claytan Milligan, carrying not just the hopes of a team as their leader, but the weight of a moment ‘Hinch have chased for years.

The Energia Bateman Cup final is a new experience for them, travelling down to Castle Avenue to face Division 1A rivals Clontarf on Saturday (kick-off 4pm – live on irishrugby+), in a game that also has Energia All-Ireland League points on the line.

Ballynahinch have lived most of their modern existence as a side able to compete with anyone on their day, and occasionally push deep into national competitions. But the final? That stage has always seemed to sit just slightly out of reach.

Their 2009 All-Ireland Cup triumph, back when it was a different competition with a different structure, remains one of their great historical touchpoints, a reminder that silverware is not a fantasy but a concrete reality etched into the club’s story.

When the Bateman Cup format was reinstated in 2011, with its restored trophy and tightened prestige, ‘Hinch were often there or thereabouts. This weekend, all of that shifts. This weekend breaks a ceiling. Milligan can feel it in the way the squad moves.

“It’s really exciting for the club. That’s the fabric of it. All the lads who pull on the ‘Hinch jersey, they just have such pride in it,” he told IrishRugby.ie.

“So, obviously going to the pinnacle and getting to the Batement final is a massive thing for the club, and I think everyone’s just buzzing to go down and put in a performance.”

There is no false modesty in his voice. He understands the scale, the significance. Ballynahinch have never won the Bateman Cup. They have never even played a final in the competition’s history – the trophy was initially contested between 1922 and 1939 before returning for the 2010/11 season.

Now here they are, preparing to go toe-to-toe with Clontarf, the reigning Division 1A champions, the standard setters in the top flight, a team that has beaten them on every occasion since an early January afternoon in 2020 at Ballymacarn Park.

This is not a fixture where history flatters ‘Hinch. But then again, history is precisely what they are trying to make.

“It’s right in the middle of the season so there’s a lot of different factors that add up into the final, but everyone who graces the pitch they’re going to put the best foot forward and we’re building each week here.

“You can see in the last run of fixtures that we’re there, just about there. It’s just cutting out some of the missed opportunities and hopefully that leads to the silverware this weekend.”

They have reason to believe that shift is coming. Their path to the final, at least on the scoreboard, was emphatic, a 78-0 win over Sligo on home turf that felt like the kind of performance where everything that had been misfiring suddenly snapped into place.

Yet, all it really confirmed was potential, not inevitability. Adam Craig’s side are not naive enough to confuse one runaway semi-final against Division 2B opposition with the reality of facing Clontarf.

Training in weather that made simple skills feel absurd, holding shape against a wind that pulled bodies off balance, shouting instructions that disappeared into the darkness before reaching their target, those moments sharpen focus.

They strip a squad back to its fundamentals – trust, cohesion, resilience. They also remind a team that chaos is something you can learn to play through.

Strong-carrying hooker Milligan admitted: “Definitely it is a strange one that it is a cup final and a league game. It sort of makes sense.

“Two very abrasive sides, so for squad contingency in terms of injuries, it makes sense. Everyone loves the big events and sure it’s no better than a double-header for a cup and league points.”

It adds a layer of oddity and edge. The Bateman Cup is a trophy rooted in old history, contested by the four provincial Senior Cup winners staking their claim to be the best in the land.

This year it is a Cup decider between two Division 1A clubs, as well as a regular All-Ireland League fixture. A league encounter that raises the stakes of an entire club’s year. And Clontarf? They thrive on that edge.

“They’re a solid side,” the ‘Hinch skipper said of their opponents. “They’ve only lost once all season, they’re the reigning league champs, you know the list goes on.

“But there’s a lot of pressure on that for them as well to stay at the top and to be on the money each week, and I think that’s one of the factors we’re going to look to push. Build on that and add the pressure as we go down.”

‘Hinch are not walking into this thinking they are the underdogs arriving for a day out. They are coming in fully aware that Clontarf carry expectations heavier than any storm-battered training session. ‘Hinch intend to turn that expectation into a burden.

However, to do that, they must be better than they have been in recent weeks. They have lost their last two league clashes – an 18-10 defeat away to Lansdowne was followed by a 14-0 reversal at home to leaders St. Mary’s College last Saturday.

Back-to-back losses marked by missed chances, thin margins, and the frustration of knowing they could have been a lot closer than the final scorelines suggest. While there was frustration, Milligan is adamant there will be a new mentality this weekend.

It is frustrating the last couple of weeks. It’s just a couple of missed opportunities, and if you’re playing against teams like Lansdowne and Mary’s and you don’t take your opportunities when you get them, that’s the way the scoreline is going to go.

“But yeah, definitely, it’s a new mentality this weekend. It’s a cup final week so we need to go down (there) and change that momentum.

“Each week changes. We’re currently at the grindstone ourselves, we’ve had a couple of tough fixtures in the last couple of weeks but we’re definitely knocking on the door.”

Knocking on the door, that is where this team has lived for years. It is where they have had to deal with semi-final heartbreak in this competition, their narrow misses to make the play-offs in Division 1A, their almost-there seasons.

Ballynahinch do not fade, they persist. They keep pushing at the same door until it opens. This is why this week has carried more than the usual tension. This is why this week’s wind-lashed sessions felt symbolic.

Winners of two Ulster Senior Cups in the last three years, they are tired of knocking. They want to step through on the national stage. It is all about that mentality for this weekend.

“It’s all about us in training. Obviously you focus on the team you’re playing that weekend, but it is about righting the wrongs and changing it up for the week.

“Clontarf have the pressure on them to maintain the standard they’re playing (at), and I think it’s one of the things that we are at the grindstone, it definitely could change up.”

For the former Ireland Under-19 international, who works as a Civil Infrastructure Engineer with Fibrus, this weekend is not just simply about tactics, it is about identity.

Ballynahinch are hoping to make that bit of history, recapturing the glory days of 2009. Trying to add more silverware to a club that is a focal point of their community.

“It’s just the fabric of the club week in, week out. You see the same lads who have represented the club, they’re up each week supporting again.

“We represent ourselves and then we also represent the lads who’ve pulled on the jersey previously, so there’s so much belief from the club that we believe we belong at the top end of the table.

“We’re not far away from getting it right over the last few weeks, but we’ll keep working hard until everything clicks and hopefully the whole club can get behind us this weekend.”

That emotional backbone gives a squad purpose. It makes moments like a Bateman Cup decider feel not like a reward, but a responsibility. Saturday’s double-header is both things at once, everything and nothing, a league match and a legacy moment.

It demands not only performance but poise, and that is perhaps the truest image of what Saturday could be. The players walking back into the dressing room as history-makers, a club surging behind them, Ballymacarn Park lighting up on their return, the collective pride of decades swelling into one cold, electric night.

But that image is only possible if they meet the moment. It is not destiny. It is an opportunity. A door creaking open for them, and Ballynahinch are ready to step through, and make it a Christmas to remember this year.

“It’s about getting that emotional balance, it really is. You have the mentality of it’s just another league game but then you also bring in that emotional side. This is a cup, this is an opportunity for us to take home some silverware and make history.

“So, it definitely is about balancing those emotions between, ‘Yes, this is a big fixture that we have to go well in’, and also ‘this is just another game’.

“It’s about us, it’s about our performance, and you’re talking about the occasion before Christmas that would be a lovely present, wouldn’t it? But no, definitely, it’s a massive fixture for the club and if it goes well, you know there’ll be big celebrations after it,” he added.

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