Castleisland win against the head

MUNSTER JUNIOR LEAGUE DIVISION 2 Castleisland 14 St Marys 6

CASTLEISLAND pulled off an improbable victory against crack Limerick side St Marys in the Crageens last Sunday.

St Marys would have travelled with the intention of taking a bonus point victory, but were turned over by a resolute and deterrnined Castleisland who bounced back from the previous round loss to Thurles.

Daniel O’Shea at out-half gave a fine performance and his three penalties, along with excellent tactical awareness and organisational skills, laid the foundation for the Castleisland victory.

Kieran Downey went over for his usual try in the first half, and with O’Shea slotting over a penalty, Castleisland led by 8-3 at half time.

A feature of the first half was some excellent Castleisland defence when they were down to 14 men after Mathew Aherne was sin binned with 10 minutes left in the half.

Castleisland were under some intense pressure in the second half, and with their line-out malfunctioning, St Marys desperately fought to punish the home sides lack of ball control in the set piece.

The Castleisland scrum was very solid however, and all St Marys had to show for their efforts was a single penalty, as O’Shea kicked over twice to seal the victory.

Castleisland are now just two points off of table toppers Thurles, and welcome second placed Crosshaven to the Crageens on November 19, for what is certain to be a huge battle.

Killarney 8 Mitchelstown 19

KILLARNEY’S woes continued as Mitchelstown proved too strong for the home side.

Things started badly for Killarney as Mitchelstown went in for an unconverted try with just three minutes gone. Killarney didn’t let this early set back phase them and some good pressure forced the visitors into conceding a penalty, which Damien Carroll excellently converted.

Killarney continued to press and they were rewarded with a try in the 25th minute of the game. A break from Paul O’Sullivan off the back of a scrum saw him find debutant Mark Griffin coming off the shoulder at pace.

The Kerry senior footballer still had 40 metres to run, but after breaking a tackle he had too much pace for the Mitchelstown defence and expertly finished to put Killarney 8-5 ahead, a lead that they carried with them to the half-time break.

It was a different story for Killarney in the second half as Mitchelstown scored two converted tries to seal victory.

The first came with 15 minutes to go as a bad clearance in the Killarney defence saw the Mitchelstown winger touch down in the corner.

The second try came on the stroke of full time as Mitchelstown took a quick penalty and after a good crossfield kick caught Killarney unawares, Mitchelstown touched down for their third try of the game.

Best for a brave Killarney side were Mark Griffin, Alan Madigan in the second row and centre Mike Mulligan. Killarney are now firmly rooted to the bottom of the table and will be desperately seeking a win when they travel to Mallow on November 26.