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Subs Used: Dara Connelly, David Tully, Mike O’Riordain
Match Report: Creggs continued their recent run of good form with a convincing victory over Ballyhaunis in the league. The team showed a number of changes due to injuries to Mike Ward, Mark Brandon, and Paul Turley. Indeed Paul Turley was a very late cry off after he pulled a muscle in his upper arm in a Friday night training exercise. The match was scrappy in stages but it augurs well for Creggs to have the luxury of introducing so many new faces to the team and still win comfortably.
The match began with Creggs on the offensive and the pack drove Ballyhaunis a full fifty metres to the Ballyhaunis try line. However Ballyhaunis were able to steal the ball from a resulting scrum and clear their lines. For the next five minutes there was a lot of loose kicking from both sides. Creggs would want to concentrate on playing a more controlled game at times like these as descending into a loose kicking game is not the way forward. After 25 minutes Ballyhaunis won a scrum about 15 metres out from their own goals. The Creggs wing forward Ciaran Coyne hit a tremendous tackle on the Ballyhaunis outhalf forcing him to throw out a wayward pass. Mark Hestor showed superb anticipation to intercept the pass and run in for an easy try. Creggs outhalf Noel Flynn made no mistake with the conversion to leave the score Creggs 7 Ballyhaunis 0. Ballyhaunis to their credit hit back and put a sustained attack together. Tom Lyons fielded a dangerous cross field ball to relieve the pressure just before half time. Again Ballyhaunis attacked. However after 35 minutes Creggs hacked the ball upfield and their young centre Mark Hestor was tackled without the ball. A penalty was awarded about 35 metres out and Noel Flynn made no mistake to extend Creggs lead to 10 points to 0. The score remained this way until half time.
After the break Creggs came out showing a lot of purpose. Mark Hestor and Daniel Keane made some good breaks in the Creggs midfield. Indeed such is Hestors aggresion going forward it prompted the remark from one of the spectators that he does not need any ‘instruction to proceed from mission control’. The Creggs pressure was rewarded after 10 minutes when Creggs free scoring left wing Colin Looby crossed wings to create an overlap and score a fine try in the corner. Noel Flynn was desperately unlucky to see his magnificent conversion attempt come back off the upright.
From the Ballyhaunis restart the ball was fed to Noel Flynn who hit a beauty of a kick 50 metres up the pitch to put the pressure right back on Ballyhaunis. At this stage Creggs introduced Dara Connelly and David Tully into the action on both wings. Indeed David Tully was very unlucky not to crown his debut with a try when he just failed to hold onto a pass with the try line at his mercy. After 25 minutes of the second half Creggs were awarded a series of 5 metre scrums. This culminated with Creggs number 8 Alan Ward touching down for a push over try.
The rest of the match was played out in extremely heavy weather conditions (with Creggs stalwart Frank Brandon showing a unique knowledge of the side line when sheltering under a completely bare ash tree!) and Creggs ran out deserving winners at 22 points to nil. The Creggs pack as a unit and particularly in scrums were vastly superior to the Ballyhaunis pack. Alan Ward sporting his now customary facial mud pack and wing forward Ciaran Coyne were superb throughout. The performance of Ciaran Coyne was remarkable given that he had an injury scare late the previous evening. John Leddy showed tremendous heart and aggression at scrum half with Mark Hestor the pick of the remaining backs.
This Creggs team can surely go on to bring honours back to the village of Creggs. However a tighter pattern of play and cutting out on the number of unforced errors will be critical against stronger opposition. Finally congratulations to John Cunningham and team manager Martin Fallon on their respective awards in the Roscommon Sports Partnership VEC awards on Friday night last. The video footage at the ceremony of Martin Fallon in action will live long in the memory.