Creggs RFC 25 Sligo RFC 7
On a difficult day for rugby and on a pitch that was tearing up under the feet after the recent weather, Creggs U17’s guaranteed a home U17 Division 1 league semi final against Galwegians next weekend after seeing off the challenge of Sligo RFC on a scoreline of 25-7 in Creggs last Sunday afternoon.
This game was always going to be decided by the team that handled the elements best and it is a credit to this Creggs team who would much prefer a dry pitch to play their running rugby that again when questions were asked they had the answers against a very determined and tough opposition.
Creggs began the game well and were unlucky on a couple of occasions early in the game when Brian Maloney, Adam Finnerty and John Martin were all held up short but it was Sligo who took the lead after 15 minutes when on their first visit to the Creggs 22″, Christian Nielsen managed to dive over from close range which was converted to give them a 7-0 lead.
Creggs again took the game to Sligo after the restart and took their opponents on up front with Mathew Curley, Aaron Glennon and Danny Arnold gaining good ground with ball in hand and when they got close Rian Biesty used very good technique to evade the defense and dive over to reduce the deficit to 7-5 to Sligo.
Sligo were using the strong wind to pin Creggs back and Tim Lambe and Ben McGahon did very well dealing with the Sligo kicking game and returned any kicks well and Shane Purcell, Niall Cunniffe and Jason Hoare dealt with anything Sligo tried to bring through the middle and a collective defensive structure kept the score to 7-5 until half time.
In the second half Creggs had the benefit of the strong wind and on a pitch that was sapping energy from the legs Melvin Conteh and Rian Biesty were making considerable ground and the Sligo rearguard were having difficulty halting their progress, Shane Purcell, Eoghan Coyle and Ronan Dowd also kept Sligo retreating with some very good kicks and Sligo had no response as Creggs scored 4 second half tries, a brace each for Biesty and Conteh to leave the final score 25-7.
Creggs will now play Galwegians next weekend in the league Semi final. These two teams met two weeks ago in the league in Creggs which ended in a 14-14 draw with Creggs needing a late try to level things up. This will certainly be a difficult game for the lads but hopefully the game against Sligo will stand to this team and we can progress to try and reach our fourth Connacht league final in 4 years.
Creggs: Mathew Curley, Aaron Glennon, Melvin Conteh, Brian Maloney, Adam Finnerty, John Martin, Rian Biesty, Danny Arnold, Eoghan Coyle, Shane Purcell, Jason Hoare, Niall Cunniffe, Juan De La Campa, Tim Lambe, Ben McGahon, Oisin Keenan, Joe Kerr, Ronan Dowd, Emmett Quinn, Cillian Higgins