Search Results for 'Connacht Junior Cup'

In the battle of the Mayo sides in division 1a of the Connacht Junior League it was the Bulls from Westport who came out on top for the second time this season, when they faced Ballina in Carrowholly last Sunday. JP Walsh’s side ran out comfortable 16-3 winners over their north Mayo rivals thanks to a try from David Keane, with Seán Tobin kicking the other 11 points from three penalties and converting Keane’s try. Westport put themselves in front early on and went in leading 10-3 at the break thanks to Keane’s five pointer and two kicks from Tobin, Ballina responded with a penalty from James Coppens but it was the only score they would register on the day. The win sees Westport push six points in front of Ballina with three games left for each side before the end of the league season. The win also puts Westport just three points behind third placed Ballinasloe in the race for place in the Irish junior cup next year.

It was another weekend of mixed fortunes for the Mayo sides in the top level of junior rugby in the province with Ballina running out big winners and Westport going down by 21 points on the road.

Both of the Mayo sides in the top division of junior rugby in the province went down last weekend, with Westport coming up short by three points at home to Ballinasloe and Ballina shipping a 29 point home defeat at the hands of Monivea.

This weekend sees a break from the action in the Connacht Junior League after eight hectic rounds of action. In the top division, Westport remain as the main men from Mayo, currently sitting in fourth place in the table behind the Galway trio of Connemara, Monivea, and Corinthians, and they will be well buoyed by the last second draw they got against league leaders Connemara in Monastery Field. The Bulls trailed by 14 points at the turn around. Westport did narrow the gap back to three points midway through the second half, but Connemara scored a break-away converted try to push their lead out to 24-10, but with a few minutes left Mike Cronin touched down for Westport, with Séan Tobin converting the try and then kicking a late, late, penalty to grab a draw for Danny O’Toole and JP Walshe’s charges. Next up for the Bulls is sixth place Ballinasloe in Carrowholly on Sunday week. When the team met in round two in September, Ballinasloe emerged two point winners against Westport condemning the Bulls to their second defeat of the season, but they have been on a steady upward trajectory since then, with their only blip a loss to Corinthians a fortnight ago.

After a shaky start that saw them go down to league leaders Connemara and Ballinasloe in the opening two rounds, Westport picked up their fourth win in a row in the division 1A of the Connacht Junior League last weekend, with a 24-17 win over Galwegians in Carrowholly.

There are not many superlatives left to describe how good Westport United have been this season in league and cup competitions in Mayo. A second treble in three years of the Elverys Sports Super League, FCS Cup and Connacht Gold Cup was achieved last Sunday, with a 3-0 win over Ballyheane in the Connacht Gold Cup Final, and with that they went through the entire domestic season, league and cup unbeaten. The only minor blemish on their record was a draw at home to Straide and Foxford United in July. But last weekend it was jut about taking care of business and they did that with ruthless efficiency and killing the game off early thanks to goals from Dave Cameron and Pat Fitzgerald inside the opening 20 minutes, with Philip Keegan rounding off the win before the hour mark.

The two Mayo sides in the top tier of the Connacht Junior League came face to face last Sunday in Heffernan Park, and it was the visiting side that went away with the spoils. Westport went home 10 point winners over their hosts Ballina and in the process leapfrogged them in the table moving up to fourth place. Having lost their two opening games to Connemara and Ballinasloe, Westport have now won two on the bounce with a nine point win over Monivea a fortnight earlier. This weekend Westport will be on the road again, this time on Saturday night when they are down to play Corinthians in Galway in what should be a tough encounter. The Galway side had won their first three games this season, before they went down by 10 points to Ballinasloe last Sunday. Westport will be hoping that Kevin Corcoran can keep up his scoring form from last week when he ran in two tries against Ballina, and Matt Dempsey has his shooting boots with him.

The second round of games in the Connacht Rugby Junior A League last weekend saw both of the Mayo teams in the top division go down to defeats. After grabbing a late win in round one the previous week against Ballinasloe, Ballina went down 33-17 away to Monivea last Sunday afternoon. The north Mayo men were trailing by 11 at the break and did manage to haul themselves to within a converted try at one stage in the second half, but they were not able to pull themselves back on terms.

In round one of the Connacht Junior League 1A, Ballina got off to a winning start with a 22-21 win at home to Ballinasloe last Sunday. Ballina picked up the win thanks to a last minute converted try from Aidan McNulty with James Coppen kicking the extra points. This weekend Ballina will be on the road against Monivea who had an impressive 36-11 win over OLBC on the road last Sunday. The other Mayo side in the top division, Westport, went down to the Connemara All Blacks in Carrowholly on a score of 14-3, this weekend Westport will look to get things back up and running when they travel to face a Ballinasloe team who picked up a losing bonus point from their tight defeat to Ballina.

Outside the Box was on a sabbatical overseas last week, but did make it back in time for the Connacht Junior Cup final in Milebush last Sunday and you can read all about that at www.advertiser.ie/mayo/article/69409. While Castlebar Celtic were suffering a heartbreaking defeat to Ballinasloe Town in the provincial cup decider, the team who lost to them in the previous year’s final, in a similarly heartbreaking way, were cementing their position at the top of the Elverys Sports Super League table.