Ruthless Connemara crush Buccaneers in 11-try rout

Connemara 69

Buccaneers 0

John O’Sullivan at Monastery Field

Connemara completed an undefeated Connacht J1A league campaign with a 69-0 rout of Buccaneers at the Monastery Field last Sunday.

Winning all 13 of their fixtures – averaging 34 points a game – it was fitting that the All-Blacks would sign off their league season with the kind of stylish, attacking, quick tempo rugby that their success has been built upon.

Ostensibly, the game was a dead rubber for Connemara, with the title secured with their defeat of Westport on February 22, but with the trophy presentation after the match, the players seized the chance to put on a show for the healthily-sized home crowd with both hands.

Scoring 11 tries in total, including a hat-trick winger from Peter O’Toole and a brace from openside flanker Paul Lee, the hosts are in rude health ahead of their clash with Castlebar in the Junior Cup final on Sunday week March 22, a match which will give the Clifden-based team the opportunity to win consecutive league and cup doubles.

With Connemara top of the table going into the game and Buccaneers languishing at the bottom and fighting off relegation, the chasm in quality was apparent from the very beginning.

Collecting the ball from the kick off deep in their own 22, the All-Blacks knitted together a typically intricate move – with nine players touching the ball as they progressed menacingly up the field – which saw full back Marty Conneely audaciously throw an offload that found the cutting angle of centre Eoin Bourke to touch down. The conversion from fly-half Curtis Jonas was narrowly wide, but he would get ample opportunity to make amends as the game progressed.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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