’Stones in control

Bonus-point victory over Ballina

GREYSTONES ran in seven tries as they got a comfortable bonus point victory against Ballina winning 47-17 in their first home game of the season.

The men from the west were the first visitors to Dr Hickey Park this league season.

The hosts put on a good try-scoring display for their home crowd. Greystones came into this game after a hard-fought victory away to Malahide last week and they would have been coming into this game confident of getting another victory under their belts.

A three-try blitz in the first quarter raced the home team into a 21-0 lead. It was clear they were focused on coming out of the gate quick and getting a strong grip on the encounter.

The hosts brought a good intensity to the first 20 minutes, playing with a fast tempo that the visitors struggled to cope with in the opening exchanges.

Halfbacks Alex Ryan and Killian Marmion were pulling the string at pace with the out-half bringing the ball right to the game line giving his team lovely front foot ball to attack. Andrew Kealy looked dangerous in the centre in what looked like a very talented 9, 10, 12 link up that will hurt many teams this season.

This fast ball that was given to the backline was only made possibly by the great supply that the forwards were giving to their scrum half as they took full control at the breakdown.

Backrow Robin O’Sullivan was one of the standout forwards. Stones got their first try as number eight Daniel Mannion broke free to run under the sticks.

The second try was arguably the best of the day as came in waves of attack, using the full width of the pitch, with some lovely handling skills involving Mannion again before Ferdia Kenny got his first score of the day.

The third try saw second row John Campbell crash over the line as they worked their way into a scoring position once again, all the opening tries were well converted by Kealy.

For the rest of the first half, Stones took their foot off the gas somewhat as they failed to get any more scores. They would have been disappointed with their accuracy at times as both teams looked poor in that period.

With the men from County Wicklow leading 21-0, they started the second half with the same fast tempo that they began the game with, fullback Mark Myler went galloping down the pitch using good footwork as his team got into the opposite 22 straight from receiving the kick off.

The visitors showed ill-discipline conceding a number of penalties before a quick tap that was passed to Chris Simmonds ended in a try in the 45th minute.

Stones had a bit of a purple patch for the first 25 minutes of the second half as substitute Con Callan got two tries, the first try he got he ran a perfect line as Ryan took the ball off a rolling maul and got his centre up for the try. Winger Kenny would also get his second try of the day.

The men in green and white registered 47 points in the entire game, but it’s fair to say most of the scores happened either in the first or third quarter of the match, ultimately they used these periods of dominance effectively to run away with the contest, although they wouldn’t have been pleased with the last 10/15 minutes.

Credit to the men from Mayo, they kept trying and got three late consolation tries for their troubles.

Stones seem to have a lapse in concentration especially in defence which would have disappointed them towards the end of the game.

Stones will travel to the west next week to face Galwegians in what should be a cracking fixture. Stones sit second in the league table after winning two from two.

GREYSTONES: Mark Myler, Ferdia Kenny, Rob Connolly, Andrew Kealy, Paudie Geoghegan, Killian Marmion, Alex Ryan, Dan Mau’u, Darragh Higgins, Conor Pearse, John Campbell, Chris Simmonds, Cormac O’Donoghue, Robin O’Sullivan, Dan Mannion. Subs: Barry Treanor, Ronan Kearney, Alan Dempsey, Matt O’Brien, Con Callan