Claremorris still waiting for league win after Ballina defeat

A Mayo derby in the Connacht Rugby J1C League:

Claremorris Colts took on a Ballina 2nd VX in round four of the competition. The fixture was a repeat of the Curley Cup Plate semi-final just over a month ago. In that fixture the Colts came out victorious, so a much changed Ballina side were out for retribution.

After very physical first ten minutes, Ballina were pressing hard on the Claremorris line. As the guests moved the ball across the five yard line Matthew Macken stepped out of the line and intercepted the ball.

The foot chase that followed ended up with Macken running the full length of the pitch to touch down under the posts. With Shane Meehan adding the extras.

The try gave Colts a boost and Meehan offloaded in the tackle to the on-rushing Cathal McHugh to tap down one side of the posts. Meehan added the extras with the score now 14 - 0 to the Colts.

Ballina pushed hard on the restart and after claiming the ball back drove at the Colts line. A tap penalty deep inside the Colts 22 saw the ball moved swiftly across the line and touched down.

The conversion was scored which lead to the half time score to be 14-7 to the Colts.

With everything to play for, the second half kicked off with as much ferocity as the first. The game descended into an arm wrestle with both sides battling hard.

Ballina finally got their break through and after scoring the resulting conversion levelled the game.
And the Moysiders smelled blood and took the game by the scruff of the neck.

Probing kicks into the Colts 22 started to cause problems due to the greasy conditions and one of these kicks led to the try that put Ballina into the driving seat. 21-14.

After an intense kicking battle, Matthew Macken crashed over the Ballina try line, bringing the score back to 21-19. Unfortunately for the Colts, Meehans conversion struck the upright.

With the clock ticking down Ballina applied the pressure again and found an opening out wide to touch down. The conversion was missed leaving the score at 26-19, but Ballina added a penalty to lead 29-19. In the dying moments, Meehan kicked a penalty for Claremorris to ensure a losing bonus point.

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