Having made the short journey to Ballymoney, the Bannsiders lost out as their errors and mistakes were harshly punished. On the day Ballymoney were better organised and took a decisive victory in the first of three encounters between the rival clubs this season

Speaking on Monday, assistant coach Norman Blair told Times Sport: "It was a very disappointing result but the scoreline
is not an accurate reflection of the difference between the two sides.
"Ballymoney were well organised in defence and we just couldn't penetrate that. They scored as the result of mistakes we made. They counter-attacked very well and turn over ball cost us dearly in terms of tries.

"On our part it wasn't a good team performance, although there were a number of great individual performances. The second half was much stronger for us defensively and only five points were conceded in that period."

Norman revealed that the Coleraine side was depleted by a number of key players being unavailable at the last minute and injuries during the game added to the problems, Coleraine ending the game with 14 players. There were a number late call ups to the side and the game plan established during training had to be re-written.

Looking forward, Coleraine resume their league campaign on Saturday, meeting Cooke at Sandel Lodge Park. This will be a hard encounter against one of the strongest teams in this year's league.
Norman said: "There will be changes this week. We will be doing a bit of re-structuring and we are lucky in that we have a lot of competition for places in the squad.

"There is some doubt over Aaron Rankin and Bootsie who were injured in Saturday's match but we should have a strong squad available for selection. Our plan will be to go out and secure a win and get our league campaign back on track."

Following the match with Cooke the First XV have a two week break before taking on Ballymoney at Coleraine on Boxing Day, in the league. The third meeting of the season will be on March 6, at Ballymoney.

Coleraine: L George, M Hunter, S Bartlett, C Smyth, B Marian, P Bogle, S Dickey, R Black, N Blair, P Roxborough, H Tate, A Parke, N Hall, C McNay, A Rankin. Subs: N Montgomery, S Jefferson.