Castlebar - County Mayo - Castlebar Rugby Club winning streak continues.....

Connaught Junior League Division 1

Corrib ……………7
Castlebar…………19

Castlebar continued their winning form in Division 1 of the Connaught League at the weekend with an impressive win over Corrib. Conditions in Headford were less than ideal with strong winds and heavy rain occurring throughout the encounter. However, Castlebar resumed their league campaign, after a three week break, in confident form, despite a number of injuries the strength in depth of the squad was evident from their display. The strong winds, which were blowing across the park, were to neither sides advantage and coupled with the extremely wet conditions, made for a very physical contest. Both sets of forwards having to work extremely hard to retain possession once obtained. Castlebar found their form early in the first half and maintained their impressive defensive record with full-back Robbie Cusack putting in some crunching tackles. Once again the Castlebar pack where the basis of the teams performance with solid scrummaging. The front row of Connor O’Malley, Nathan Cole and Mick Heneghan together with second rows Paul Heverin and Ruairi Hughes worked hard all around the park especially in the scrums. As to be expected, given the weather, there was a large number of scrums, the effects of which were seen earlier on the Corrib pack rather than on their counterparts.

Castlebar took the lead earlier in the first half with a penalty from the boot of Diarmuid Byrne, who added a second 10 minutes later to bring the score to 6-0 in Castlebar’s favour. Out-half Jason Keane further increased his sides lead by 3 points soon after with a drop-goal bringing the half time score to 9-0. Corrib emerged for the second half determined that this match wasn’t over. Always quick to spot an opportunity the home side made a number of good breaks up the centre of the park and indeed spent a period of time camped in the Castlebar 22. However, the first score of the second half went to the visitors coming from a sweeping movement which saw forwards and backs link together effortlessly. Winger Mick Power received the ball deep in his own half and covered a lot of ground before offloading to scrumhalf Christy Cusack who quickly passed on to Hughes who went to ground. The Castlebar pack recycled possession quickly and wing forward Rob Langan found himself in possession on the far side of the pitch with quite a bit of ground between him and the try-line, however the strong running forward made short work of the distance and tackles to cross the line for the first try of the game. Byrne converted to bring the score to 16-0. Corrib came back strong and again spent another substantial period of time in the Castlebar 22, this time they were rewarded with a try and added a tricky conversion, reducing Castlebar’s lead to 16-7. Byrne added a further penalty for Castlebar to bring the final score to 19-7. Solid performances for Castlebar were given by John Scott, Gordon McGuinness and Ciaran Berry.

Castlebar’s next league outing is this coming Sunday when they travel to Corinthians in what is sure to be an entertaining afternoon for the good number of supporters who are following Castlebar’s impressive session. Kick-off on Sunday is at 2.30p.m while Castlebar’s second XV are also in action at the weekend against local rivals Ballinrobe.

Castlebar: C. O’Malley, N. Cole, M. Heneghan, R. Hughes, P. Heverin, R. Langan, J. Scott, G. McGuinness, C. Cusack, J. Keane, M. Power, D. Byrne, A. K. Njuru, C. Berry, R. Cusack. Subs: B. Kelly (Heneghan), P. Durcan (O’Malley), J. Foy, S. Devaney, S. O’Malley, D. Glacken.