Defence excels as Castlebar hold off University boys
Patrick Flannelly scored one try and helped set up another as Castlebar RFC recorded a hard-fought home win against University of Galway.
Castlebar recovered from a slow start to secure a hard-fought bonus point victory at home over University of Galway last Saturday evening.
The result has lifted the Mayo side to third in the table, five points behind leaders Connemara who they play next on January 24.
The result will be a hard one to take for the visitors as they dominated the opening exchanges as well as the final ten minutes, after Castlebar finished with fourteen men following a late yellow card. But heroic defending from the hosts ensured a great win in this refixed encounter, which was postponed a fortnight earlier due to heavy fog.
University of Galway got off to the best possible start on three minutes as sustained pressure play inside the Castlebar 22 paid off. A short kick forward by Sean Cullen found Finn McCall for Galway’s first try of the evening. Cullen followed up with the conversion and then he nailed a penalty on ten minutes to continue the visitors excellent start.
On the flip side, Castlebar’s opening 20 minutes was a stuttering affair as they struggled to get into University of Galway’s half. But when they finally made the breakthrough past the opposition’s 22-metre line through Michael Brink, they made it count. After a winning a penalty 10 metres out, Castlebar elected to gamble for the try and the pressure paid off when Patrick Flannelly went over the white line for a morale-boosting try, although Stephen Rogan’s resulting conversion went wide of the post.
With four minutes of the half remaining, Castlebar went ahead as Aaron Wooton barged over another try to draw them level after a scrum inside the ten-metre line provided the platform. Rogan this time converted to move his side two points ahead.
It would get worse for University of Galway as David Ahearne was shown a yellow card shortly before half-time, Zach Wright played in Michael Brink for his first try of the evening to make it 17-10 at the interval.
Moments after the restart, Castlebar made their extra man count by nailing their fourth try. A lung-bursting run by Patrick Flannery made the chance and following a melee, Brink bundled the ball over the line for his second try and Rogan found his range again with the resulting conversion.
On 58 minutes, University of Galway got their first points since the tenth minute when Finn McCaul scored his second try and Sean Cullen converted once again to leave only seven between them.
The visitors huffed and puffed but Castlebar’s defensive resilience was first class. Despite losing two players to yellows in the last 20 minutes, they held firm and while Tireoin McCabe had a chance late on to bring it level, he fumbled the ball and knocked it on to ensure Castlebar’s victory.
Castlebar: James Balaski, Eoghan Hughes, Patrick Flannelly, Michael Brink, Damien Togher, Stephen Rogan, Zach Wright, Simon Staunton, Joseph Howley, Ronan Ipek, Carl Jackson, Sean Connolly, Matthew Staunton, Tommie Keane, Aaron Wootton. Replacements: Giorgi Totladze, Frankie Gannon, Bryan O’Flaherty, Donnacha Flynn.
University of Galway: Daniel Bent, Eoghan Cullen, Sean Cullen, Brian Murphy, Jack Fitzgerald, Ben Clarke, David Ahearne, Liam Melia, Oscar Soden, Callum Wall, Tireoin McCabe, Ciarán Shannon, Peter Magliocco, Conor O’Grady, Finn McCall. Replacements: Drew Hamilton, Maitian Ó Griofa, James Doyle.
REF: Christian Short
