Hat-trick hero West lights up the Dexcom as Ballina win silverware

RIDE out the storm and trust in the rugby that lit up the J1A league for the first half of the season - that was the key to Ballina’s Connacht Junior Plate success, in the eyes of hat-trick hero Ian West. 

The elusive winger ran in three corner scores in the space of a little over 25 minutes, performing a lot of the heavy lifting in his side’s comeback from eleven points down to 25 ahead at the final whistle. 

“To be fair to Ballyhaunis, they were right up for it from the first minute”, he told The Mayo News.

“There was a couple of big shots going in the first 15 minutes and they were showing their intent from very early on. We had the wind in the second half so we knew we just had to stick in it for the first half and then we could try and pull away. 

“We knew we had to run a bit of ball in the first half, but we were well able for that. We have speedy backs all over the pitch and our forwards are very agile as well. They had quite a big pack, so we knew we had to try and move them around a bit and that's what we did”.

A Junior Plate might not be the trophy that any Ballina player dreamt of at the start of the year, but for a club that is trying to make it’s way back up the club pyramid again, it can be a valuable stepping stone, in West’s opinion. 

“We were an All Ireland League team for a good few years there, so we're just trying to kind of build a new young squad again,” he said. 

“A couple of lads played in the AIL over the years, but there’s a lot of new lads in the squad, young fellas who are putting in a lot of effort and they're just learning their trade at adult rugby. It's quite a big step up from youth, so everyone's learning. 

“We were obviously devastated not to be in a Cup final or a League final, but I think one thing we need to work on next year is our knockout rugby. We lost our two knockout games this year, so that's something we'll really put a focus on for next year. 

“We have the facilities down in Heffernan Park in Ballina. They're unbelievable. We've AstroTurf ourselves down there as well and it really suits us playing on the fast surface. 

“It's nice to get some sort of credibility for the year with the Plate, so we'll build on it for next year and yeah, and hopefully go well for 2026-2027.”