Our youthful Development XV slipped to a narrow defeat in the first round of J1B action on Sunday in South Mayo.
The first half was lively and well-contested from first whistle to last but no score was recorded by either team despite their best efforts.
However, things changed dramatically immediately from the restart when a mix up in the Ballina defence handed a gold-plated opportunity to the Ballinrobe men to go over virtually unopposed for a try. This was unconverted to leave the score at 5 – 0.
Shortly afterwards, Ballinrobe followed up with an intercept try from halfway by their centre who appeared to have a three-metre advantage on the offside line. He dotted down under the posts to facilitate their kicker to add the conversion.
Ballina were extremely disappointed by that situation but put it behind them.
The Moy men got in for a try of their own when some silky running from Bradley Nealon who took a good line of attack after fine distribution from Joe Murphy. Craig McCormick added the conversion to close the gap to 12-7.
Both sides traded penalties before the end to leave the final scoreboard reading 15-10.