St Muredach's junior rugby team are Connacht league champions after an enthralling game in Claremorris today.
The Ballina boys defeated a strong Claregalway side 22-21 in one of the most nailbiting finishes experienced in many a long day.
Muredachs' young guns get off to a tremendous start with a well-worked try down the right hand side finished well by Alex Mescal, and Tom Ruane added the extras.
Inside centre, Ruane, quickly added three more points off the tee making it 10-0 after 21 minutes played.
Howver, Claregalway quickly hit back by getting over the whitewash for a well-worked try of their own to leave the score 10-7 with 28 minutes gone.
That stung the Mayo boys into life and Muredach's finished the half the stronger team with Conor jordan getting over for a fine try in the corner.
The tight-angle conversion was narrowly missed, leaving the half time score 15-7 in favour of St Muredach's.
The leaders looked even more comfortable early in the second half when they scored their third try of the day.
Tom Ruane split open the defence with a brilliant sidestep and added the extras himself to leave the score 22-7.
It looked like the Ballina boys were going to dominate the rest of the Connacht final from there on, however the Claregalway boys had other ideas and sparked into life with two tremendous tries both being converted to leave the score 22-21 with five minutes remaining.
Those closing minutes showed the huge character in the Muredach's ranks. Lads hit tackles left, right and centre until they won a penalty with the clock in the red which allowed Alex Mescal tap the ball into touch before the ref blew the final whistle as the boys from Ballina took the Connacht league title home for the second time in the school's history.