Connacht Under-16 Division 1 League Final

Creggs RFC 19, Corinthians RFC 19.

With the incumbent weather a late call was made Saturday night to move the Under-16 League Final to the 4G pitch in Creggs and those who turned up in large numbers to watch the game on Sunday will not have been disappointed with the high quality of the game on show.

Creggs flew out of the blocks and went ahead after 7 minutes when Ciaran Purcell burst from the back of the scrum and fed Cormac Dolan who sent Ryan Conlon over in the corner for the opening score.

Then totally against the run of play, a lose ball was kicked up the field by Corithians, the Creggs player dived on it but failed to control and again a Corinthians player hacked it forward and an unfortunate bounce allowed the Corinthians player to dive on the ball over the line, which was converted for a 7-5 lead for Corinthians after 17 minutes.

Creggs never let the score bother them and went back on the attack with Darragh Gilleran, Lee Kilcoyne, Edimar Fimho, Miqual Arthur, Ben Johnson and Tomas Tiernan excellent early on. Creggs moved the ball wide at every opportunity and they regained the lead after another Ryan Conlon try was converted by DJ Hession for a 12-7 half time lead.

Again the start of the second half Creggs continued to be on the front foot and an excellent steal at the lineout by Aidan Hoare, DJ hession made an excellent break and offloaded excellently to Aodhan Looby for a brilliant score which Hession converted for a 19-7 lead.

Corinthians had come with a big squad and made some crucial changes in midfield and they started to get some territory then and had a purple patch for 10 minutes and unfortunately for Creggs, although there was some heroic defence from Jack Fleming, Noah Fallon, Conor Betts, Senan Lambe and Josh Adams Verling in the backs, a few penalties went against the home side who were tiring and Corinthians got in for two tries to level the scores.

Creggs Under-16’s will play in the Connacht Cup next week before they have the the league replay on the weekend later (7th of March).

Creggs Rugby: Miquel Arthur, Tomas Tiernan, Ben Johnson, Aidan Hoare, Darragh Gilleran, Ciaran Purcell, Lee Kilcoyne, Edimar Fimho, Cormac Dolan, DJ Hession, Senan Lambe, Jack Fleming, Aodhan Looby, Ryan Conlon, Cormac Feeley, Noah Fallon, Andy Quinn, Josh Adams Verling, Michael McAteer, Aindriu Oates.