The Claremorris Juniors played out a thrilling encounter with their Oughterard counterparts in Tuam RFC on Wednesday evening last.

The Galway boys made the better start and had a 10-0 lead within 15 minutes. The Colts were then spurred into action and got their opening try from powerhouse Luke Ronayane. James Shaughnessy converted the extras to reduce the deficit to 10-7. Things got even better for the Colts when impressive fullback Ian O’Brien crashed over for the Colts second try. Danny Broderick added the bonus points as the Colts led 14-10.

Things changed drastically for the Colts as Ougherard stormed back into the lead and within the space of 2o minutes had four further tries on the board to lead 36-14 with 20 minutes remaining.

Clearly the Colts were not going to give up and the entire team put their shoulder to the wheel for the final 20 minutes to ensure the game did not go beyond them. The revival was kick started by the excellent Damien Meehan. The Colts made ground off a scrum before they fed James Shaughnessy who laid if off to Meehan who cut through the Ougherard defence like a knife through butter to touch down under the posts. ‘Shocks added the extras and suddenly the Colts has some belief and were back in the game.

They continued to dominate possession and after some fine forward play Luke Ronayane powered over for his second try to cap an excellent individual performance and now the Colts were 26-36 behind.

The entire team continued to work their socks off and their work was rewarded when Liam Griffith got the try his performance deserved after some fine lineout play by Pearse Hahessy. The conversion was also added and the score was now had Ougherard in front 36-33. However the Colts could not get another score that they needed in what was a highly entertaining game with both teams giving it their all from first whistle to last.

Team: I O’Brien, D McDonagh, D Cosgrove, K Sheridan, J Shaughnessey, P Finnegan, D Bell, D O’Connor, A Maye, L Ronayne, M Jennings, P Noone, K O’Connor, P Kilboyle, L Griffith

Subs Used: F Leonard, P Hahessy, C Kelly, D Meehan, M Nicholson, D Broderick, A Joyce.