Connacht Junior 1 League
Creggs Rugby 18, Monivea RFC 8.
Two Brian Diffley tries helped Creggs to a convincing win over Monivea at The Green on Saturday night. The win means that Creggs not only leapfrog Monivea into second place behind Connemara in the Connacht J1 League, but the team also qualifies for the Cawley Cup Final against Castlebar on December 15, in Galway.
This was a hard attritional battle with Creggs losing four forwards to injury in the course of the game. Starting props Tom Fleming and Eoghan Farrell and back rows Kevin and Alan Brandon were forced to retire early but their replacements stepped up and ultimately triumphed against a much heavier Monivea pack.
Monivea dominated the opening exchanges although Creggs looked sharp on the counter attack, coming close to scoring before Monivea opened their account with a penalty after 18 minutes.
Mark Brandon squared the game with a penalty four minutes later and on the half hour Diffley showed great pace and awareness in charging down a kick on the Monivea line and beating the defence to the touch-down, leaving it 8-3 at the break.
Brandon stretched the Creggs lead with a penalty goal (11-3) five minutes into the second half and two minutes later Monivea missed a penalty in front of the posts.
That miss inspired Creggs and had the opposite effect on Monivea. Creggs controlled the remainder of the game, going close on a number of occasions before putting the issue beyond doubt 3 minutes from time when Diffley was carried over in a well organised maul and Brandon added the difficult conversion to leave a losing bonus point beyond Monivea’s reach.
They did manage a try 3 minutes into injury time when Creggs were reduced to 14 after a rather harsh sin-binning but it was too little too late.
This was an impressive performance with high marks earned right through the squad, and in addition to double try scorer Brian Diffley, there were two stand-outs, flanker Peter Lohan who was magnificent in defence and prop Aidan Leech contributed a number of big carries and capped that with two turn-overs, the second of which brought the proceedings to a close.
This Saturday Creggs are away to Westport in the Connacht League, kick-off 7.30 pm.
Creggs Rugby: Ronan Dowd, Eoghan Coyle, Tom Callaghan, James Brandon, Shane Dowd, Mark Brandon, Tom Fleming, Maurice Buckley, Eoghan Farrell, Brian Donoghue, Tom Oates, Brian Diffley, Peter Lohan, Kevin Brandon, Sean O’Higgins, Aidan Leech, Ronan Cahill, Aidan Brandon, and Kevin Gavin.
Senior Players – Training
Training continues on every Tuesday (8pm) and Friday (8.15pm) for all senior players. New and returning players always welcome. If you haven’t already paid, please pay your membership is now overdue.
CONNACHT JUNIOR 1 LEAGUE
|
POS |
TEAM |
PLD |
W |
L |
D |
PF |
PA |
DIFF |
BP |
DED |
PTS |
|
1 |
Connemara |
7 |
6 |
1 |
0 |
181 |
73 |
108 |
5 |
0 |
29 |
|
2 |
Creggs |
6 |
5 |
1 |
0 |
108 |
50 |
58 |
3 |
0 |
23 |
|
3 |
Monivea |
7 |
5 |
2 |
0 |
136 |
113 |
23 |
2 |
0 |
22 |
|
4 |
Castlebar RFC |
7 |
2 |
5 |
0 |
115 |
146 |
-31 |
8 |
0 |
16 |
|
5 |
Westport |
7 |
3 |
4 |
0 |
119 |
148 |
-29 |
2 |
0 |
14 |
|
6 |
Buccaneers |
7 |
2 |
5 |
0 |
127 |
154 |
-27 |
5 |
0 |
13 |
|
7 |
Galwegians |
6 |
3 |
3 |
0 |
133 |
206 |
-73 |
3 |
-3 |
12 |
|
8 |
Sligo |
7 |
1 |
6 |
0 |
111 |
140 |
-29 |
4 |
0 |
8 |