Castlebar RFC 9, Creggs RFC 18

Congratulations to the Creggs First team which won their third Cawley Cup in-a-row. The game was played in windy conditions at Crowley Park in Galway.

A good Castlebar team playing with a strong win in the first half were held by some great Creggs defending to just one point (8-9) at the break.

Sean Og Higgins scored a try when he pealed of a good rolling maul and crossed the Castlebar line. Shane Purcell also added a penalty and Castlebar converted three penalties. Castlebar also had lost a man to a yellow card after 35 minutes

The Mayomen were not going to be deterred by Creggs having the strong wind at their backs in the second half. 20 minutes in, it was still very much in the melting pot, with just a another Shane Purcell penalty regaining a slender lead for Creggs (11-9).

Shortly after, Shane Purcell finished a well worked try and duly converted it to put some distance between the teams, but with a yellow card against them for the last 10 minutes, 14-man Creggs survived strong Castlebar pressure to seen out the game.

In his acceptance speech at the presentation of the Cawley Cup, Creggs Captain, Brian Diffley acknowledged the strong and sporty performance of the Castlebar team. He also said that there were another 20 players in addition to the 22 on the day, that played in some of the previous Cawley Cup’s four pool games and the semi-final. This is a good reflection on player development at the club.