Ballina currently lead the way for the Mayo clubs in the Connacht Junior League following three rounds of Division 1A. The north Mayo men picked up their second win of the season last weekend thanks to a bonus point win over Tuam at home. It was just what Ballina were looking for after going down in the previous round to second place Monivea. The Creggs Road side crossed the line with tries from Robert Forbes, Conor Forde, Paul Neary, and David Newman to wrap up a 29-3 win. This weekend the Ballina men will make the short trip to Cloondeash to take on a winless Castlebar side in round four of the competition. Last weekend the county town side went down to a 22-7 defeat at the hands of Corinthians, and despite leading by 7-5 at the break, thanks to a David Staunton try which was converted by Ronan Conway, they weren’t able to hold on to the lead and were steamrolled in the second half, with Corinthians hitting two tries. Castlebar haven’t had a good start to the season and will be looking for a much improved performance on Sunday against Ballina.
Westport also picked up their second win of the season with a 17-0 win over Ballinrobe in Carrowholly, the south Mayo men who are stuck to the bottom of the table held the Bulls scoreless at half time, however the Bulls went on to put 17 points on the board in the second half thanks to tries from Eoin Mulloweny, JP Walsh, and Calum Southgate, with player-coach Eddie Walsh landing one conversion for the Bulls for the win. The Bulls are now in fourth place in the table, one behind Ballina thanks to the north Mayo men picking up two bonus points compared to Westport’s one. This weekend the Bulls travel to Galway to take on OLBC as they go in search for their first win over a non Mayo side in the competition. Next up for Ballinrobe is a local derby against border side Corrib at home. Corrib themselves had a massive 52 -0 win over Galwegians and it will be another stern test of Ballinrobe since their promotion back to the top level of junior rugby this season.
In Division 1B Ballyhaunis went down to their second defeat of the season losing out 28-3 to the West Offaly Lions following their opening day defeat at the hands of UCG at home. This weekend the east Mayo side will make the trip to Gort in a very winnable game for the Mayo side. The second Mayo side in Division 1b, Westport B, saw off Carrick 26-11 to pick up their first win of the season and will take on Loughrea away from home on Sunday.
The newest club on the go in Mayo, Claremorris Colts, commenced their training for underage players last Saturday morning and had a huge turn out, the training will continue on Saturday mornings from 11am to 12 noon in the back pitch of the Mount St Michael Convent.
