It was a frosty morning in Drogheda as the Balbriggan Under 16s made the short trip north to play Boyne. Previous matches had been close encounters, with their last match ending in a draw. The sun rose to drive the frost away and after a last-minute change of pitch we got underway. This was an intense first half with Balbriggan playing down the hill, both teams setting out to play attacking rugby and defending stoutly.
Somehow, the halftime score was 0-0. As the second half got underway we saw some dogged tackling as both sides tried to impose themselves on the other.
Eight minutes into the half somebody finally scored! Boyne opened their account with a superb break down the left side, and with the conversion they took a 7 point lead.
Balbriggan struck back shortly afterwards, with Hamiz scoring a well taken try to reduce the deficit. Then Séamus went over from short range, and Conor added the extras to make it 7-12. Boyne attacked strongly looking to close the gap, and were camped in the Balbriggan 22 almost scoring a few times with some strong carries from their pack.
With just a few minutes to go Balbriggan were stuck in their own 22, when much to their coaches surprise, the backs ran the ball from a scrum, going up the hill, the length of the pitch, and with some superb offloading and support play we saw Tadhg cross the line for the final score of the match.
Boyne came back strongly in the closing minutes and took some stopping, but Balbriggan held on until the final whistle taking the win 7-17.
Our thanks to Boyne for hosting and for the superb post-match refreshments which went down a treat. We look forward to playing them again later in the season.
Next up for Balbriggan Under 16s is a home match against Carlingford Knights on Sunday 14th Jan. New players are always welcome to join, training on Wednesday & Friday evenings.
