It was a much changed Ards seconds that made the trip to Judges Road in wet conditions.

With call ups to the first team and unavailability due to injury this gave a number of players the opportunity to impress.
Chris Webster started at flyhalf along with a new centre partnership of Ryan Mills partnering "powerhorse" Neil Beggs.

It was City of Derry that started the brighter and after a couple of phases they outnumbered the Ards backline and scored a try in the corner. The conversion was missed.

The Ards pack then began to gain the upper hand at both and scrum and lineout. This set a great platform for the Ards backs to attack at every opportunity.

However, the next scoring play was from City of Derry when a penalty was quickly taken and the pacey City of Derry backline finished again in the corner 12-0.

The score line did not represent the dominance of the Ards pack. With the mobile backrow of Ryan Yates and Chris Beacom getting to every breakdown first the City of Derry penalty count began to rise.
Following a well taken lineout from Ian Presho, followed by some great ball retention and strong running from David Chivers; Ryan Yates touched down in front of the posts. Stevie McKee added the conversion.

Half Time: City of Derry 12 - 7 Ards 2nds

The team began the second half where they left off, aggression at the breakdown as well as some huge hits from tackling machine Conran Stewart.
Ards looked dangerous and Alan Crawford was doing a good job marshalling the team from 10.
Neil Beggs was breaking the line at ease and had great support from Ryan Heath and Adam Coulter only for the final ball to let us down.

City of Derry started to creep back into the game and their dangerous backline made great gains on the outside.
Ards where then penalised at the ruck and their scrum half slotted the penalty 15-7.

This was quickly followed by another City of Derry Penalty 18-7.

Ards 2nds found another gear, but for all their possession and hardwork there was no points to show.
A quickly taken penalty by Neil Beggs in the Ards 22 was fed to Adam Coulter who beat the City of Derry defence only to be foiled by a great tackle from their fullback.
City of Derry punished a mistake from an Ards clearance and ran in under the posts. Conversion added. 25-7.

Ards could have let the floodgates open here, but they fought on as they had done all day and after some nice footwork from Crawford he passed out to the waiting Neil Beggs who scored the easiest of tries. McKee added the conversion.
City of Derry attacked again in the last 5 mins, but as it had done all day the Ards defence held strong until the final whistle.

Final Score- City of Derry 25 - 14 Ards 2nds

Overall, it was a great team performance, but a special mention must go to 'Man of the match' Chris Beacom, in only his second game for Ards he disrupted City of Derry all day.

Ards 2nds need to take the aggression and work rate into the next match against Belfast Harlequins and the results will improve.

After this impressive performance, there will surely be selection headaches across the senior squad this Saturday.

Special thanks go to Stevie Robinson for assisting Alan Benson on the touchline, Ian Presho for joining the team at short notice and finally Gary Aston for doing a solid job of driving the mini-bus.

Ards 2nds: Ashley Paden, David Chivers (capt), Conran Stewart, Trevor Jordan, Ian Presho, Ryan Yates, Chris Beacom, BenSmith, Stevie McKee, Chris Webster, Adam Coulter, Neil Beggs, Ryan Mills, Ryan Heath, Alan Crawford