Balbriggan 53 Swords 5
Balbriggan recorded a win over Swords in their Div 2 derby game. The score however reflected the fact that Swords lost a number of players to injury through the game and ended the game with 13 men. Swords though in the early part of the game put it up to Balbriggan at scrum time pushing the home side off the ball on a number of occasions. The day was for the Balbriggan backs who were missing Ian Murphy and Ciaran Verdon from last week. Conor Casey took over at scrum half and Kyle Healy moved to out half. Dave Healy moved into the centre to partner J Mullen. At every opportunity they were trying to run the ball with J Mullen punching big holes in the Swords defence. Swords conceded a penalty on the 22 and rather than going for the point Healy kicked to the corner. Malone carried the ball from the line out and Casey popped a pass to Mullen who barged over for the first try. Balbriggan added a penalty before it was Swords turn to get over the line when their forwards carried well and Balbriggan were unable to hold them out. However from the kick off Balbriggan turned the ball over and flashed it along the line and Dave Healy got over from 22 metres out. Brother Kyle added the points. Balbriggan fullback Marcel Brennan was giving Swords all sorts of problems with his attacking runs and it should have been a warning to Swords not to kick long. Eventually they were unable to keep him out and he got in under the posts. He quickly then added a second try.
At this stage Swords were losing players to injury and while they played on manfully Balbriggan were able to find the gaps. Dylan Staunton added the next try when he outsprinted everyone from the halfway line. Winger Steve Keegan finished off a good run by the pack. Marcel Brennan looked as if he was in for his hat trick on probably the best move of the match. Balbriggan stole a line out and the ball went all along the line; it looked as if Brennan would score but didn’t manage to hold the ball but was able to pass it on to Chris Bateman who squeezed over in the corner. Scrum half Con Casey then got in the act with two individual tries when he created space with good dummies and left himself a clear run in.
While the scores this week all came from the backs it was the forwards who did the work up front. Mark Browne and Mark Geraghty worked hard all afternoon in the second row, carrying hard when the opportunity arose. Anto Whelan probably gained the most yards with a number of big runs. There was another good display from Connor Burke who is acclimatising to the Irish game and getting in plenty of tackles. The man of the match goes to Marcel Brennan for an overall display. Next week Balbriggan are away to Ardee.
M Brennan, D Staunton (C Batemen), D Healy. J Mullen, S Keegan, K Healy, C Casey, C McDonald (A McKirenan), J Davis, A Whelan, M Browne, M Geragthy, G Dennis, C Burke, S Malone,
The Balbriggan ladies got their season off to a good start with a 19-10 win over Westmanstown.
