Mayo rugby club advance to Cawley Cup Plate final in bruising encounter

The Connacht Rugby Junior 1A side Castlebar RFC get a shot at defending the Cawley Cup Plate that they won last year.

On a wet and windy afternoon, the Castlebar men showed improvements on their defeat at the hands of Westport last week.

Their were up against a considerable challenge against a physically bigger Ballinasloe side. The opening exchanges brought play to all parts of the field with neither side dominant.

Following a Castlebar lineout near half way Liam Hegarty took off towards the Ballinasloe line. Sean O’Grady gave support and when Hegarty offloaded to him the path was clear for a touch down in the corner. The tricky wind caught the conversion attempt.

Ballinasloe responded well and launched their own attack pinning Castlebar into their own half for several minutes and dominating the scrum in this period.

Well won ball from a scrum on the Castlebar 22 found its way to Kyle Blackwater who made good ground before offloading to Andrew Mannion who soon found Luke Feehily outside him clean through for a touch down just to the right of the uprights. Scrum Half Terry McGowan added the conversion.

As the second quarter moved on, Ballinasloe kept the pressure on and in the 32nd minute won a penalty just outside the 22 again converted by McGowan to leave the half time score Castlebar 5 Ballinasloe 10.

Following dominant forward play and good handling from Castlebar, Stephen Rogan found himself in possession inside the Ballinasloe 22.

He chipped the ball on excellently to allow Cathal Fahy touch down in the corner for Castlebar’s second try in the 44th minute of the half, which again went unconverted.

A lot of the action was now taking place in the middle third of the pitch. No team was able to seriously threaten the opponent's try line. 

In the 22nd minute Castlebar won a penalty in midfield about 46 metres out which Sean O’Grady excellently converted to regain the lead for Castlebar at 13-10.

In the final quarter Ballinasloe tried hard but failed to make meaningful inroads into the Castlebar 22 thanks to excellent defensive work and discipline from the home side.

The last score of the game in the 78th minute was another penalty converted again by O’Grady to leave the final score Castlebar 16 Ballinasloe 10.

This was a good win for the young Castlebar side who now face Tuam in the final on a date yet to be decided.

Ballinasloe had fine performers in Luke Feehily, Michael O’Neill, Terry McGowan and Andrew Mannion.

Castlebar had excellent performers in Sean O’Grady, Matthew Flannelly, Luke Staunton, Carl Jackson and Sean Tonra can be particularly pleased with their contributions.

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