heroic fight back

On a wonderful day for playing rugby our U16 boys team travelled to Galwegians for the final game of the league round-robin series.
The visitors had already secured a home semi final spot before the Christmas break, so they approached the fixture in a relaxed mood and started with a different line up than expected.
From the the outset, home side played with fierce intent and with the journey still in their legs the visitors were in trouble from the off.
Five minutes into the game, the home pressure paid off and Galwegians raced over the line touching down out wide for a 5-0 lead.
Buoyed by this success, 'Wegians again came looking and soon crossed the whitewash again and converted for a 12-0 advantage after 20 minutes.
The management made a number of changes at that stage and as these were taking hold, the boys in blue came looking for a killer score and a pass under pressure was intercepted for the home side to run in under the posts for Galwegians to lead 19-0.
The boys in green were incensed by this turn of events and set about working their way up the field and back into contention. Soon, the ball was in the hands of the speed merchants and it finally ended up in Sam Callinan's hands and he raced over the line to close the gap to 19-5.
Ballina again drove up field and pounded the Galwegians line. They crossed once and it was disallowed and knocked on after crossing another time.
Eventually after a lot of pressure, Liam Golden cut inside and raced under the posts for a converted try and a 19-12 half time scoreline.
Following the break the visitors tore into the home side and within five minutes they broke down the centre. The ball was swung out to the left and following a quick ruck, Aaron O’Malley crossed for his first try for Ballina and the gap was back to 19-17 .
However, try as they might the visitors could not hit the front and eventually the home side slowly worked into the Ballina '22 and preceded to pound the line but powerful defence kept them at bay until the final five minutes when they crashed over for a 24-17 lead.
Not cowed by this the Moy boys set to and drove down field and were just outside the home 22 when the final whistle went.
The only thing lost today was pride. Roll on the semi at home on the 19th of January. See you there!

BALLINA: Cormac Jackson, Darragh Walsh (Capt), Daniel Boland, Harry Reagan, Jack Gawley, Alex Hennigan, Fiachna Barrett, Davin Feeney, Harry West, Liam Golden, Thomas O'Boyle, Sean Murphy, Alex Moran, John Ginty, Liam Connor, Kian Meyerink, Cian Gibbons, Sam Callinan, Iarla Quinn