Castlebar round off their season with a trophy

On a day when Creggs confirmed their position as the Goliaths of Connacht junior rugby by completing a first league and cup double since 1989, Castlebar just about scraped over the line against the Galway/Roscommon border club’s second team, preventing a David and Goliath double bill on Sunday afternoon in Ballina, writes Kevin Egan.

“We definitely didn’t play up to our standards today, but fair play to Creggs, for a second team they really brought great levels of intensity and they really pushed us,” said Castlebar captain Seán Connolly after a 17-12 victory on his way to collecting a trophy that wasn’t high on their agenda at the start of the season.

“The Junior Cup and getting into the top four were our primary targets for the year. We managed the top four but it didn’t go how we wanted it to. But once we were out of the Junior Cup we set our target at this straight away, and it was great to hit that and bring it into next year as well.”

In some aspects, such as cutting edge in the back division and in the set piece, the gap between a leading Division 1A side and a team that won one out of seven games in Division 1B was apparent. Castlebar won three scrum penalties, they disrupted the Creggs lineout, and they looked far more capable of moving the ball through the hands to create an opening, such as that which saw Zach Wright carry off the base of a ruck and set up Paddy Flannelly for the opening score in the left corner midway through the half.

But despite enjoying plenty of possession, Castlebar struggled to break down a Creggs defence where the back row of Michael Feeley, Peter Lohan and Luke Divilly were outstanding, with Maurice Buckley adding plenty of impetus too off the bench.

A Donnacha Flynn yellow card allowed Callum Fahey to kick penalties either side of half-time and with the scent of Castlebar blood in the water, Creggs continued to live on the offside line and pile into the rucks, completely disrupting the pre-match favourites.

“I thought the set piece was very good. Lineout was something that we really worked on and prided ourselves on this year. We’d be happy with how that went. But outside of that it was just silly mistakes, lads not doing the job, maybe not getting to rucks on time” said Connolly.

“But a lot of that is down to the pressure Creggs put us under as well. We needed to come around to match that in the second half as well. Discipline was bad generally – we gave away a couple of penalties for giving out to the referee, which is not good enough.”

WORK

When Fahey added a third penalty and Flynn returned to the field only to see Daire Mulgrew head the other way, Castlebar looked to have a lot of work to do.

But while Simon Staunton’s late score under the posts will go down as the try that won the 2025 Connacht Junior Plate, it was Keepa Charington’s score late in the third quarter that really changed the momentum in this tie.

As they had done for the first yellow card, Creggs kept it tight, ran straight, and tried to pick out gaps in the back division with long kicks.

Barry Walsh, who came off the bench to play a key role at fly-half for Castlebar, had the vision to see something more when Creggs got turned over in a ruck close to the touchline, dropping a box kick from just inside the Creggs half in behind the three-quarter line.

A favourable bounce was all that Charington needed to dart in between two Creggs defenders and touch down, making it 10-9.

Fahey landed one more kick to restore Creggs' lead but with Castlebar back up to their full complement, they turned the screw in the final quarter and eventually barrelled in under the posts to round off their season with a trophy.

Castlebar RFC: Stevie Rogan, Connor O’Neill, Paddy Flannelly, Luke Staunton, Damien Togher, Luke Walmsley, Zach Wright;Simon Staunton, Seán Tonra, Ronan Ipek, Seán Connolly, Aaron Wooton, Donnacha Flynn, Keepa Charington, Rory Murphy.

Replacements: Barry Walsh for L. Staunton (half-time), Brian O’Flaherty for Murphy (half-time), Daire Mulgrew for Ipek (half-time), Murphy for Wooton (64), Richard Sweeney for Charington (69), James Balaski for O’Neill (69), Frankie Gannon for Tonra (73), Tonra for Murphy (80).

Creggs RFC: Michael Farrell, Callum Fahey, Tommie Devine, Tom Callaghan, Jason Hoare, Mark Kilcommons, Mark Brandon; Thomas O’Brien, Tomás Tiernan, Jack Tucker, Aodán Kelly, Eoin Kelly, Peter Lohan, Luke Divilly, Michael Feeley.

Replacements: Maurice Buckley for Lohan (33), Lohan for Tiernan (38), David Butler for Devine (40+7), Luke Meehan for Callaghan (55), Patrick Fitzmaurice for Tucker (60), Tommy Curley for O’Brien (78), Kevin Battles for Farrell (78).

Referee: David Andrieu.