Ballinasloe 12 Creggs 15 A last-minute drop goal by outhalf, Noel Flynn, proved to be the winning score, as Creggs ground out a difficult away victory against the home side in Ballinasloe on Sunday afternoon. We were penalised for a high tackle after 10 minutes – No. 14 Alan Brady made no mistake to give his side a 3-0 lead. Brady stretched the lead when we went offside under the posts, with another successful kick. Down by six, we finally began to play and twice got ourselves into good attacking areas. We kept plugging away and were rewarded, on 18 minutes, when after a typical Mark Hester break, the ball was moved quickly out to the backs, and Emmet Collins hit the line just right and at speed to touch down to the right of the posts. He added the points to give us a 7-6 lead. Unlike in the first half, we came out of the traps quicker at the start of the second and after 13 minutes we were to stretch our lead when 2nd row Kevin O’Rourke barged his way over for a try, following a good lineout and maul. Brady scored with two penalties to draw level just as the game went into injury-time. At this stage, I would have gladly settled for a share of the points, but our lads had other ideas. Clever work on the blind by Mark Brandon and Gary Brennan got us into a good attacking position and after a good lineout and maul, outhalf Flynn dropped a goal that Johnny Wilkinson himself would have been proud of. Straight from the kick-off the ref blew for full-time and we had a very welcome win in our first league match. Next week we are home to Portumna (time to be decided) and we would hope to carry on the good work of Sunday’s victory.
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