On a day when the weather made its presence clearly felt, Ulster clubs mostly had a successful first taste of AIL action with home wins for Ballymena, Ballynahinch, Belfast Harlequins, and Malone leaving only Dungannon and Instonians, who were also hosting their opponents, to feel the pain of defeat.

In Division Two, Malone found themselves having to dig deep before finally deservedly running out 16-10 winners over Greystones.

While matters looked less than comfortable at half back, Malone, crucially, had the measure of their opponents up front where the scrummaging of Jarlaith Carey and David Halliday, and work rate from second rows Filou Palou and David Heron along with some impressive ball carrying from Glen Moore and Kenny Calladine, gave the home side a more than useful edge.

Defensively, Andy Dougan should also be reasonably impressed particularly the way his charges kept their line intact in the closing minutes.

It was a difficult day for kicking and Gareth Fry found the going tough with both place kicking and punting. Two missed penalties and a failed dropped goal prefaced his one successful kick of the half which gave Malone a short lived lead as a ricocheting ball allowed the visitors in for a converted try at the stroke of normal time in the opening 40 minutes to give them a 7-3 lead.

This was extended to 10-3 five minutes after the break before Fry began to find his range with a penalty to reduce Greystones’ lead to four points.

The impressive Mark McCrea’s kick and chase nearly resulted in a score for Mark McKeever but from the resulting series of scrums on the visitors’ line referee Peter Roche awarded Malone a penalty try which Fry converted. His third penalty granted just enough breathing space to hold out.

In the top flight, Ballymena managed a rare opening day win to see off Young Munster 21-10. Ian Humphreys was given a club outing by the Ulster side and kicked 11 points while tries from new signings Tommy Seymour and Ian Whitten saw the Braidmen home.

Dungannon were not so fortunate as St Mary’s College departed Stevenson Park on the back of a 27-10 bonus point win, ‘Gannon’s points coming from a Derek Hall try and a conversion and penalty from David Parkhill.

Back in Division Two, an Aaron Ferris try along with two penalties from Kiwi out half Ryan Bambry gave Ballynahinch a hard-earned 11-6 result over DSLP. Belfast Harlequins just about managed to get their season moving in the right direction with a 10-8 over Bective.

Instonians had a harsh re-introduction to life in Division Two losing 35-12 to Bruff at Shaws Bridge.