This Sunday, Ballinasloe and Monivea meet in the Connacht Junior Cup Final at The Sportsground. Kick Off is at 3pm.
Ballinasloe's last win in the competition came in 1986 when they defeated Corinthians in the Final 17-3.
This is the Match Report on the Game as reported in the Connacht Tribune by Brendan Carroll.
Ballinasloe 17 Corinthians 3
BALLINASLOE shook off the challenge of Corinthians in an entertaining Connacht Junior Rugby Cup final at the Sportsground on Sunday to add to the Junior League title they clinched some weeks ago.
Corinthians were out of luck to some extent, getting scant reward for some considerable pressure and long periods camped inside the Ballinasloe half.
But they can’t argue with the merit of this victory by a Ballinasloe side, which had the advantage of being permitted to field the same team in junior and senior competition this weekend.
Driving seat and built up a ten points to nil lead in the first half when the east Galway sides backline always looked extremely dangerous when running the ball, two of their tries coming from fast breaks and the third coming in the dying minutes when the pounced on a through ball with the Corinthians, who were off the mark with two penalty attempts in the first half, decided to run a number of second half penalties because of the swirling wind and their deficit but were held up short of the line by some tough tackling .
It was the city side , in fact, who had the first scoring chance early on when John McCormack chased his own kick ahead from the Ballinasloe ‘22’ but the pace of the ball was too fast and it beat him over the dead ball line.
After ten minutes came the first of Ballinasloe’s classy tries, starting with a surge from their own ten yard line. Peter McCormack made a fine run from the half way mark right into the Corinthians ‘22’, drew a tackle before making the decisive pass yards from the line to Declan McKeon who had the easiest of tasks to cross over at the corner and run in to touch down under the posts. Outhalf James Burke missed the conversion. Corinthians brought the play to Ballinasloe for a long period after this but made little headway and first Paddy Keogh from 35yards, and then Frank Brady from 40 yards, was off the mark with penalty attempts. Both players, however, were to make a fine contribution to the game with some excellent kicking from play which helped keep their team in with a chance.
The game was half an hour old when Corinthians started a promising looking back movement on their opponent’s ten yard line but it was brought to an abrupt halt by Peter McCormack who broke through the line to neatly intercept a pass and ran the whole way downfield to score between the posts. This time Godfrey Gibbons added the point s with the conversion
It was the last time in the half that Ballinasloe were to get out of their own half, bar a short lived surge up to the Corinthians ‘22’, and the score remained 10-0 at half time
Just five minutes after the restart Martin O'Gorman was penalised for scooping the ball back along the ground after being tackled and James burke made the most of the opportunity to score a penalty from 25 yards.
Corinthians soon after opted to run a penalty from the Ballinasloe ‘22’ and although the visiting second row Tom McDonagh’s charge, they could not get though.
After that Corinthians were seen to their best, running the ball at e very opportunity, but no avail. They won another penalty which they opted not to kick but to pass to outhalf Paddy Keogh whose attempted drop at goal was deflected and the ball toughed down for a five yard scrum.
Corinthians continued to press hard and finally got some reward with yet another penalty from which Frank Brady gained the three points.
But although they had broken their duck, that was to be Corinthians last contribution as Ballinasloe, gaining in confidence as the second half progressed, brought the play to the city side.
They had a few promising attacks by their every threatening backs and after James burke had missed a relatively easy penalty the issue was placed beyond doubt with their third try.
It came just minutes from the end when from a loose ruck inside the Corinthians ‘22’ , the ball was chipped through and Micheal Lyons nipped through after it to punish woeful cover by the Corinthians backs who looked rooted to the ground and the Lyons dived over an uncontested ball. Burke failed to add the points from the conversion.
Corinthians with all hope of a recovery now gone, were still pressing hard near the Ballinasloe line for the remaining two minutes contest enjoyed by what was a sizeable enough crowed for the game at this level, the only incident marring it being a second half flare-up with a number of players involved, sparked off by a rather foolish and apparently unprovoked punch thrown by former Corinthians senior back row Iggy Madden, who was actually in possession at the time.
Ballinasloe: G. Gibbons. L. Feehily, P. McCormack, D. Finn, D. McKeon, J. Burke, M. Lyons, D. Tierney, R. Gibbons, J. Burke, K. Hannon, M. O’Hehir, N. Hogan, J. Dillon, G. Kirwan,
Replacements: B. Finn for Kirwan
Corinthians: F. Brady, J. McCormack, K. Heffernan, J. O’Connell, J. Greaney, P. Keogh, A. Heffernan, T. McDonagh, K. Byrne, B. Murphy, J. Tighe, T. Coyne, I. Madden, K. Brown, M. O’Gorman
Referee: Mossy Moran
In 1983, Ballinasloe also won the Connacht Junior Cup defeating Galwegians 10-0 in a replay. The first game finished 6-6.
The Teams That Played that Day Were
Ballinasloe: J. Nalty; S. Brennan; R. Gannon; J. Whelan; D. Finn;D. Colbert; J. Boswell; L. Keane; J. Creaven; J. Ward; G. Kirwin; J. Dillon; P. Finn; N. Mannion; N. Hogan.
Galwegians: T. Brett; M. Boyce; R. Hitchcock; A. Ryan; P. Moran; W. O'Brien; D. Meaney; P. Fleury; T. Broderick; C. O'Donnellan; E. McGreal; S. Mahoney; T. McDermott; J. Casserley; M. Casserley. Sub: T. Tyrell for O'Donnellan (inj. 62 mins.).
Referee: Mr. M. Roche (Connacht Branch Referees Ass.)
