The Colts Juniors came out on the wrong side of a 31-20 score line last Sunday afternoon against a very strong Ballinrobe RFC side in the Connacht Rugby J1C league. Trailing 20-7 at half time the Colts rallied in the second half but were still short by the end of the second 40 minutes against our near neighbours.
Claremorris Colts RFC faced into the third game of the 2015/16 J1C adventure with a degree of trepidation against the established Connacht Rugby campaigners from Ballinrobe. Unlike the recent game against Dunmore, the Colts were able to field a side approaching full strength and expectations of a more competitive performance were high. The opening quarter lived up to those expectations with the Colts matching the intensity of the ‘Robe’ whose ventures into the Colts 22 produced a score of 6-0 after 18 minutes. When Luke Ronayne crashed over the Ballinrobe line for a forwards inspired try converted by Shane Meehan on 21 minutes, the Colts supporters who had dared to dream of an upset started to believe. However that heady feeling was fleeting when the effervescent Luke Ronayne had to leave the pitch through injury on 30 minutes and Ballinrobe’s physically larger pack started to punch holes in the Colts defence. Mistakes in the set piece handled the initiative to Ballinrobe and the pattern for the remainder of the half was one way traffic to the Colts line and a score of 20-7 to the visitors at the break.
Ballinrobe started the second half as they ended the first and after racing into a 31-7 lead within 10 minutes of the restart, it looked all over. However the introduction of some timely substitutes added resolve to the Colts and a converted David Bell try on 61 minutes ignited flickering hopes of a come back. Indiscipline within the ranks of a tiring Ballinrobe gave Shane Meehan another two converted penalties to leave the score at 31-20 after 35 minutes. However the clock ran out and with it, hopes of a famous Claremorris Colts RFC come-back along with a final score of 31-20 to Ballinrobe.
Claremorris Colts RFC Team
1. John Fitzgerald 2. Adrian Maye 3. Luke Ronayne 4. David Coen 5. Morgan Jennings 6 Rafeek Khan 7. Adam Connolly 8. John Costello 9. Mark Curley 10. Robert Kelly 11. James Kean 12. Liam Murphy 13. Diarmuid Griffith 14. David Bell 15. Shane Meehan 16. David Connor 17. Liam Griffith 18. Kenneth Groake 19. Paul Murphy