Firsts 36 – Ballina 34

For the second week running, our Seniors were involved in another try bonanza, rounding off their Connacht Senior League campaign with a win over Ballina in an 11-try thriller. The Blues led from start to finish, but a late lapse in concentration almost saw them caught by their visitors, who missed a conversion attempt with the last kick which would have earned a draw.

Wegians were dominating early on and out-half Morgan Codyre scored a 7th minute try which he converted himself. The visitors had a stiff first-half breeze and they hit back at the end of the first quarter with their first try which was unconverted.

The Blues then stretched their lead on the half-hour mark and it was a superb try from substitute winger Hugh Lane who finished off some excellent continuity play by both forwards and backs. A late penalty from the visitors saw them stay in contention to reduce the margin at the break to 12-8.

In the second-half Wegians came right out of the traps and within three minutes of the restart Eoin Tarmey finished off a neat break from Codyre to power over near the posts, with Codyre converting to put his side in the box seat. However in a sign of things to come, the visitors refused to go away and they exposed some soft Wegians defence with some neat hands down the left for their second try to narrow the gap to 19-15.

Wegians were hungry for more scores and they went on the offensive straight from the restart, and Christy Reilly barged over for their fourth bonus try. Codyre converted and when Hugh Lane bagged his brace minutes later following a well-controlled foot rush, this gave them a 16-point cushion.

However with less than a quarter of the game left, any thoughts that it might peter out were soon dispelled. With both benches emptied, the Mayomen scored a third converted try, only to promptly concede another to Wegians, this time full-back Rory Gaffney finishing strongly in the right-hand corner. Then with the clock ticking down to the final minutes, Ballina threw themselves a lifeline with their fourth try to reduce the margin to just seven.

Then deep in injury-time, they laid one last siege to the hosts and incredibly managed to score a sixth try, but the conversion out wide on the left was just sent wide. So Wegians held out by the skin of their teeth, and this win saw them take second place in the League behind Buccs.