U15s win arm-wrestle in the slime

You know that slippery, cold, slimy clay that you get after frost melts, well it was that sort of pitch that the U15’s jogged onto after a cool trip down from Ballina this morning for their contest with Creggs.
Therefore, it was understandable that the Moy Boys were a little off the pace for the first few minutes, but once they settled down they began to motor nicely.
The home side were up for the game and were running and passing with confidence, but the visitors held the line and after ten minutes, won back the ball and worked their way up the field with Alex Hennigan crashing over wide on the right.
This set the tone for the rest of the half with the forwards doing a lot of heavy lifting as they wanted to keep warm and also were due some limelight. Three times the forwards took the ball on and three times they came away with a score - the final one being the most outrageous.
Creggs kicked down field, Ballina gathered it and swung it out to the wing where Sean Murphy grasped at the ball, knocking it backwards. Like a flash, he was down on it, but the support was outside him and also behind him so he passed blind over his head where Harry West, who hadn’t broke stride, received a perfect pass.
Harry broke down the wing and was tackled. He placed the ball perfectly and the forwards arrived to take it on with Hedd Morgan completing his hat trick wide on the left. David Feeney calmly drilled over the conversion to leave the scoreboard reading 0-26.
Creggs are a proud club and every team that takes the field wearing their famous colours, have loads of heart and this team was no different, so although Ballina came looking for the killer score, the home side had other ideas.
A scrum in their own '22 initiated a move which saw the ball flashed out to the 12 who pinned his ears back and ran. The Ballina backs, who were cold because their forwards were dominating, missed their tackles and despite the Moy boys breathing down his neck the 12 touched down under the posts to leave it 7-26 at the break.
After the break the home team changed tactics and took their attack to Ballina through their big players, so although Ballina’s forwards were busy they weren't scoring. The backs, on the other hand, were sick of being bystanders and ran at every occasion and eventually their efforts paid off.
The ball was spun out to the centre where Paul Brennan joined the line from his wing. The ball made its way out to the other wing where John Ginty passed to Seamus Mason who had looped round in support and he sprinted to the line to break the home side hearts. That left it 7-33 with the conversion.
Creggs tried time and again to cross the visitors line but it held fast so this remained the final score.
This was a gritty display from Ballina, which wasn't always pretty but gave the players an idea of how hard they will need to play to progress to the business end of the competition, with all the players and subs giving everything.

BALLINA: Daniel Boland, Darragh Walsh, Patrick Morrin, Sean Murphy, Jack Gawley, Alex Hennigan, Ciaran Boland, Hedd Morgan, Davin Feeney, Harry West, Iarla Quinn, Sam Callinan, Liam Golden (capt), John Ginty, Paul Brennan
Replacements: Liam Connor, Aaron O’Malley, Harry Regan, Mark Barrett, Thomas O'Boyle