Captain Diffley coy on ‘Double Speak’

Creggs captain Brian Diffley says the newlycrowned Connacht Junior League champions won’t be getting carried away by talk of a possible double ahead of their cup semi-final showdown with Ballinrobe this Sunday.

“We enjoyed (the celebrations) Sunday night but said we’d be back to work this week. We trained Tuesday evening even though there were a few tired and bruised bodies from the weekend,” he said.

“Surreal” and “emotional” is how Diffley describes last Sunday’s long-awaited win over Connemara.

“It was definitely a little bit surreal really. It was a great feeling and great to see some of the older heads enjoying it too. We’ve been lucky to be in this position before but just never managed to get over the line,” he said.

“In fairness, I think we got over the stigma of beating Connemara earlier in the season. In previous years there might have been a bit of fear but we’re maybe a little older this year and we showed up completely switched on from the first whistle.

“Even the Connemara lads admitted that they were outplayed. In fairness, they have set the standard for the last few years but we didn’t leave any doubt last Sunday”.

The Creggs captain paid tribute to the management team of Tony Dolan, Kolo Kiripati and Mike Diffley for their input this year.

“Great credit has to go to our coaching team of Tony, Kolo and Mike. They instilled in us a be-

Padraic Kelly

lief that we could beat Connemara this year and they’ve filled us with confidence,” he said.

“We’ve also been training really hard and with the numbers we have we’ve been able to play against each other in match situations too which has been a great help”.

‘Taking it one game at a time’ is the oft-used cliché of a winning team, but Brian insists the Creggs lads won’t be looking beyond Ballinrobe.

“We’re not looking past this Sunday. We play Ballinrobe and we have to beat Ballinrobe and not look beyond that,” he says.

“We know exactly what we’re capable of but we don’t want to slip up by getting too far ahead of ourselves. Sunday is the focus now and we’ll see where we are after that”.

< DAN DOONER

‘The biggest match in Connacht for years’ was how the Irish Times described the meeting of Creggs and Connemara in the Junior League final of February 1996.

Not only was there a Connacht Junior League title at stake but the two rivals were facing each other for a place in the All-Ireland League too. The game itself proved to be a titanic struggle with Creggs holding firm in the face of intense All Black pressure in abysmal conditions at the Sportsground.

The final score of 9-3 tells its own story, but while it may not have been a game for purists of the oval ball, it was still compelling viewing according to those who were lucky enough to witness it.

Creggs’ victory was built on a platform of team effort but there were also a number of stand-out performances, most notably from Barry Kilcommins, Kevin O’Rourke, Kieran Canny, the Wards, and out-half Ger Dowd, who kicked all of Creggs’ points on the day.

Playing with a fierce wind at their backs in the opening half, Creggs managed to develop a 9-0 lead by the interval. The margin could and probably should have been even wider too but a number of try-scoring opportunities went amiss.

The second half proved to be one of the most nervewracking in Creggs Rugby history as the maroon and white were forced back into their own half where they defended their line manfully.

Connemara appeared to have lit the blue touch paper within two minutes of the restart when John Malone slotted over a penalty. Creggs’ worst fears appeared to be coming through.

From there to the full-time whistle, however, it was a tale of dogged Creggs resistance and wasteful Connemara finishing. According to the match report