Mayo rugby club Colts advance to Curley Cup Plate final

The new season hast started for a couple of Mayo rugby clubs.

On the same weekend as Connacht Rugby started their new United Rugby Championship (URC) campaign with a convincing victory over Benetton Treviso, and Geesala talent Fiachna Barrett got his first URC minutes under the belt, Claremorris Colts RFC booked a ticket for the Curley Cup Plate final.

In optimal weather conditions on Sunday, the Colts got the better of Ballina 2nd XV. The first half was a close affair with the majority of the play in the Ballina half with Claremorris threatening to break through.

It was Ballina that opened the scoring however with a well slotted penalty in front of the posts. Following a yellow for Ballina Claremorris exploited the numbers advantage with fast ball out wide setting Michael Foody loose on the 15 channel with a strong carry for Claremorris first try of the day.

With minutes remaining in the first half and Claremorris working once again inside the Ballina 22, teo quick offloads inside the five-yard-line sent Luke Colleran through the gap under the posts to put Colts 12-3 up. Colts held onto the ball killing the clock to go into half time 9 points to the good.

The second half turned out to be a different story to the first with subs on from both sides, Ballina started the second the better of the sides bringing the score back to 15-10 through a try of their own.

A change on the wing for Claremorris introduced a threat of deep runners proving effective with Matthew Macken taking the ball from deep and cutting open the defence on the wing to go over for Colts 3rd of the day.

Shortly later some quick hands in the 5 yard channel sent Colts captain Oisin O Connor over in the corner to stretch the lead out even further.

Ballina responded with a well worked try in the corner before Colts winger Liam Murphy took the ball inside the 40 and cut back in breaking tackles to go over the line for Colts once again.

The final try for Colts on the day was another deep run from Matthew Macken cutting through the defence before touching down under the posts to give colts a 39-15 lead after the conversion.

A very good all round team performance from the Colts with Shane Meehan, Jack Colleran and Matthew Mackens impact of the bench in particular standing out. Player of the match went to Colts center Cathal Mc Hugh.

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