Roscrea 10 Balbriggan 7
The Balbriggan U13s went down narrowly to Roscrea in the league final in Naas on Sunday. In a very close match the Roscrea team just edged it. Roscrea had finished top of the league and while the two teams had not met, Roscrea had inflicted heavy defeats on other teams in the league. It was Roscrea who started stronger and it took Balbriggan a little time to get into the game but it was Roscrea who got on the scoreboard first with a try in the corner. Balbriggan then had a good spell and with Roscrea conceding penalties on their line Aitzol King took a quick penalty but lost the ball as he went over the line. Just at the end of the half Roscrea spread the ball wide to score in the corner. In the second half Balbriggan were up to the pace of the game and the play ebbed and flowed. Sean Garland and Aitzol King carried well and Keelan King was covering a lot of ground tackling everything. Balbriggan lost their lively scrum half Issac McGrath when he suffered a high tackle that went unpunished. As the match neared the end Balbriggan eventually breached the Roscrea line when flanker, Ciaran Darby got the ball down by reaching out his arm when tackled short of the line. King added the difficult conversion but the ref then blew for full time when there appeared to be still five minutes to play. Considering they started off the season not knowing if they would have 15 players this team has achieved a lot on their first season in youths rugby. Well done to them all.
Photos courtesy of Catherine Lynch
