The Braidmen assumed control during the first half at Dr. Hickey Park with tries from number 8 Chris Henry and full-back Jamie Smith.

Greystones had their best spell during the opening 30 minutes but remained scoreless and trailed by 15-0 at half-time.

Budina grabbed his brace in the second half as Ballymena pushed on despite losing blindside flanker Andy Graham to a yellow card.

Making the transition from Division Two to the top flight after so many seasons out of the loop is proving difficult for Colin McEntee's young Greystones side, although untimely injuries, coupled with the loss of influential back rower Rob Connolly to Rotherham, have certainly not helped them.

Ballymena are at the opposite end of the scale in that they recently turned a corner. They ended a run of nine consecutive league defeats, the longest in the club's history, and built on that a fortnight ago with a fine 19-0 win at home to UCD.

Jacques Benade's men are playing some good rugby and although they did open the scoring today against the run of play, they had the players in Smith, goal-kicking scrum half Craig Woods, lock Ian Caldwell and back rowers Graham and Henry to see them to victory.

What will most please Benade is that as well as chalking up their first bonus point win of the campaign, his charges managed to whitewash a side for the second week running.

The try of the first half came when former Ireland Under-19 starlet Smith showed a clean pair of heels to the Greystones cover as he darted over to the left of the posts.

Ballymena made a blistering start to the second half when Budina crashed over after a quick switch of play from left to right.

'Stones had four decent try-scoring chances during the second half but could not convert any of them as the Ulster side went further in front.

Budina registered his second try, after Ballymena had being restored to 15 men, and Woods knocked over the conversion to crown the club's first ever away win over the Wicklow side.

Scorers:

Greystones: -

Ballymena: Tries: Jamie Smith, Peter Budina 2, Chris Henry; Cons: Craig Woods 2; Pen: Craig Woods