Creggs Rugby 42, Ballinasloe RFC 12.

Creggs Under-18 girls had an impressive victory last Friday night on the Green in Creggs, when they defeated Ballinasloe 42-12 in the opening round of the Division 1 of the Connacht Girls Under-18 League.

The first half was very much played between the two 10 metre lines with both defences on top and some excellent defence on the Creggs side especially by Megan Donoghue, Eadaoin Walsh and Nadine Fitzmaurice, particularly as the half wore on. Up front Roisin Maher and Grace Scanlan were excellent in their ball carries and neither side could break the other down, leaving the half time score at 0-0.

The second half began very well for Ballinasloe and they got in for the opening score after 5 minutes in the corner to take a 5-0 lead.
Creggs then really started to open the game up and played some fantastic rugby with some very good offloads from Roisin Maher, Jean O Boyle and Rachel McDonnell creating space for others to exploit.

In the set piece Gabriella Kilcommons did brilliantly in the lineout, while Ella Brady and Emily Murray had some excellent carries and were held up short originally before Creggs managed to breach the defence with quick tries from Rachel Gormley (2) Jemima Adams Verling and Sarah Purcell. All were converted brilliantly by Eabha Dowd.

There was still work to do in defence and Caoimhe Walsh, Eabha Conroy, Ciara Boyle and Michaela Gillooly were never found wanting.
However, Ballinasloe did manage to get in for a try to narrow the deficit to 28-12 before a fine individual try by Aoibhinn Murray and another from Jemima Adams Verling which Eabha Dowd also converted to completed the scoring for Creggs, and crowned excellent performance from a well drilled team.