This Connacht U17 Plate game may have been played at the racecourse grounds but the Claremorris Colts fell at the first hurdle as they were beaten by a superior Ballinrobe team.

The weather was ideal for this Connacht plate clash as both teams eyed a place in the semi-finals. It was the visitors who made the brighter start and had Ballinrobe in all sorts of trouble during the early exchanges, however this pressure didn’t result in a deserved score. As the half continued Ballinrobe got more into the game and got the game’s opening try after a fine lineout move. The ball was claimed off the top before the Ballinrobe attack cut trough the heart of the Colts defence to touch down under the posts. The Colts clearly didn’t learn from this concession as 15 minutes later Ballinrobe did the exact same thing. Again ball of the top of the lineout went through the Ballinrobe backs before they crossed. At 14-0 half-time deficit was not going to be easy to claw back.

Again the Colts started the half brighter but with no reward whereas Ballinrobe’s first foray in the Colts half resulted in try number three. An attacking scrum on the 22′ was feed to the onrushing centre who’s impressive running resulted in a three on two which Ballinrobe executed to perfection and gain a 19-0 advantage. It was going to be a long back for the Colts but they had time on their side if they were going to fashion an unlikely win.

The Colts spent much of the remainder of the game in the Ballinrobe half but Ballinrobe were defending manfully. After some excellent work by the Claremorris forwards Liam Murphy crashed over for yet another try of this very impressive season. Out half Jack Vahey nailed the touchline conversion as Claremorris trailed 19-7. Claremorris could not make any more inrodes in the scoreline and as the game entered injury time the Colts defence was caught out once again as Ballinrobe finished the game impressively to win 26-7.

Thanks to Willie Murphy for the photos.

Team: S. Ruane, C. Hennelly, L. Osbourne, D. Barry, D. Mellet, J. Vahey(C), S. Murphy, C. Ryan, J. Cooley, E. Slattery, J.Ruane, S. Gilbert, D. O Brien, T. Browne, L. Murphy
Subs: P. Barry, P. Breakell, S. Baral