History was made today when the Ballina Senior ladies took the hallowed turf of Heffernan Park for the first competitive Senior ladies fixture in our history of our famous club.
The opposition in front of us were the warriors from the city of tribes, Galwegians RFC.
Ballina got proceedings underway and were playing with a gentle breeze to their backs. The kick was chased with determination and vigour, both sides had their fair share of posession until the dynamic defending and crunching tackles of Becky McLoughlin and Molly Kilcullen forced a turn-over on the 22m line.
The ever-vigilant Aimie Brown at scrum-half spun the ball to the right to Aodhmair McDermott Quinn who sucked in two 'Wegians defenders to send team captain Aileen Bourke across the white wash for the opening score after just six minutes.
Galwegians were stung by this and worked their way into Ballina territory with their powerful pack and crossed for unconverted try to level the scores at 5-5.
The Ballina Ladies were undaunted and used their speed and skill to retain the ball in the following phases and scrumhalf Aimie Brown ran 60 meters evading all would-be tacklers to score under the posts with Molly Kilcullen adding the extras .
'Wegians now knew the women from the Moy were not there to make up the numbers, and they used their experience to create space out wide only to be marshaled by Meabh Martin at every oppurtunity.
They then reverted back to their powerful forwards and were awarded a series of penalties for infringements by Ballina, which allowed them cross twice with one converted to leave the scoreboard reading 17-12 at the break.
The second half resumed with the introduction of Shannon Moyles after few years of absense and her defensive proweress and attacking instinct played hugely in the favour of Ballina.
Against the run of play 'Wegians capitalised on a lose ball and spotted a space to slot through and score to the right of the sticks with the conversion attempt going just wide.
Bev Keane, Aodhmair Quinn, Noreen Kenny and Eilish McGee proved to be a handful for the opposition before Aisling Clarke, set Heffernan Park alight.
In just her second game, she left a trail of Galway women in her wake to score under the sticks.
However that was as close as Ballina would get to their guests and despite a much-improved display they slipped to a 38-22 reversal.
That said, Ballina were excellent in many departments. Haley Murphy on her first outing proved to be a powerhouse in attack and defence, causing all sorts of problems for the 'Wegians women on more than one occasion along with Kayleigh Hopkins and Ruth Corrigon who showed great tenacity and vision and real calmness under pressure.
All in all it was a fantstic display of rugby from both teams .

The Ballina women now look forward to a meeting against Ballinsloe in two weeks in the final of the Bowl section of the Connacht Invitational Cup on October 13th at 12.30pm in Athlone.
All new players are extremly welcome. No experiennce needed. Training every Wednesday and Friday from 6.30 to 8pm at Ballina RFC
Come along. You won't be disappointed.