Creggs 15s bowed out of the cup on Saturday last going down 32 – 5 away to favourites for the competition, Castlebar. Down many of our key players it was always going to be a big ask but conceding a try in the first minute was not what was needed. Their influential 6′-2” no.8 Jack Heavey broke from a scrum on the left just outside the 22. A terrific tackle by Conor McNeill should have saved the try but a brilliant offload out of the tackle by Heavey put his left winger in the corner, with the conversion being missed. We could not get our hands on the ball and all that pressure saw Heavey dive over from close in. A successful penalty on half time left the score at 13- nil to Castlebar.

The second half resumption was a carbon copy of the first half, with Heavey making all the running to put his right winger away within a minute, The conversion was good and at 20-nil Creggs looked dead and buried. However the boys rallied well and some storming runs by the returning Ronan Cahill breathed new life into the team and after many carries and rucks the ball was moved to outside centre Adam Whyte whose arcing run put him over on the left hand side. Minutes later a lovely break and pass by Brian Diffley looked to have Whyte in again but a handling error cost a certain try. After that 12 minute spell of Creggs dominance Castlebar came back with another try in the 55th minute as our lack of substitutes began to take its toil. Straight from the drop out the ball was caught by Heavey on his 10m line and he was able to go untouched the whole distance for try no.6. The final whistle came with Creggs attacking and really the lads have to be commended for never giving up.

It would be fair to say that we made Castlebar look better than they are on the day. but going into these big games with lack of numbers is always going to catch you.With a full squad the plate is a reasonable objective and hopefully everyone will pull together for the next 5 weeks or so. Training again on Wednesday night at 7pm

Team; Max Bannon,Rory Cunniffe,Ronan Cahill,Aidan Devine,James Fetherstone,Thomas O Byrne,Edward Clinton,Sean Doorly,James McNally,Conor Shanagher,Brian Diffley,Mark Tarmey,Conor McNeill,Richard Thomson,Andrew Mannion.