Castlebar will be looking to shake off their poor start to the domestic season when they welcome Ulster outfit - Ballyclare - to Cloondeash tomorrow afternoon in the All Ireland Junior Cup.
The Mayo outfit have yet to pick up a win in the Connacht J1A League, having lost four from four in their opening quartet of games. They had a difficult start facing the top two sides in the division; Connemara and Creggs - both sides who have started the season unbeaten so far. Castlebar did put it up to those two sides going down just 13-11 to the former away from home and 17-10 at home to the latter in the opening two rounds of games.
Since then they have also fallen to defeat by Sligo on the road and then at home to Buccaneers - while they have lost their four games they have managed to pick up three losing bonus points from those four games - showing that they have not been that far away from the sides that have been victorious over them.
Their opponents ply their trade in Ulster Rugby Championship Division One and they currently sit in second place in that competition with four wins from four, they warmed up for their visit to Castlebar last weekend with a 32-25 win over CIYMS where they ran in six tries in that win. Ballyclare have been in fine try-scoring form so far this season, running in 17 tries in their four league outings and Castlebar will have to be on their toes in defence against the Antrim men.
Ballina fall to 'Rock visitors
Ballina are still looking for their first win in the All Ireland League after the north Mayo men fell to their third straight defeat at home last weekend when Dublin outfit, Blackrock, saw them off 23-3 in Heffernan Park. Ballina have this weekend off from league action with their next outing coming on Saturday, November 2, when they travel to the capital to take on Malahide. Last weekend's game saw five yellow cards and one red card in a game that was more competitive than the scoreboard showed, with Ballina trailing 10-3 at the break, with Dylan Prendergast kicking their three points, but a series of unforced errors allowed the Dublin outfit to steamroll home to a 20 point win.
