CLONAKILTY jumped their first hurdle in the Energia All-Ireland Junior Cup, beating Ballina 48-14 away from home on Saturday.

After a 13-season break, Clon were back on the national stage.

An early setback for Clon was the withdrawal of form hooker Tom Doyle, failing a pre-match fitness test, and speedy winger Derry O’Donovan through illness. Into the breach stepped Jonas Van der Velde and Dara Walsh, with Finian Neville joining the bench.

Clon’s set-pieces were working well, particularly the linesout, where Olan Deane was outstanding. One such lineout set the platform for the first try, making good metres before releasing to the backs where Ben Lovell stormed through the defence to give Clon the lead 5-0 after 15 minutes.

Ballina struck back with a superb individual try from Rob Fridd, their impressive inside centre. The conversion from winger Darragh Whyte gave the Mayo men the lead on 18 minutes.

Clon were back in front when Donnacha Walsh crashed over the line. Corrado Berti added the points. The lead stretched to 19-7 when No. 8 Abraham Tamargo Vinces got over the line. Berti added the extras, as the West Cork team led at the break.

In the second half, Ballina applied sustained pressure on the Clon line, but the work rate of Luke McCarthy was outstanding, stopping their momentum on three occasions.

Ballina continued to press but Deane stole possession at a breakdown, made some yards and got the ball to Jack Ryan who booted downfield. Ciarán McCarthy and Lovell were quick in closing down the space and bundling the recipient into touch. From the lineout, Clon drove at Ballina with Ryan and Gearóid O’Donovan prominent until the defence conceded a penalty that Downey dispatched to increase Clon’s lead to 22-7 after 56 minutes.

Next, Lovell benefited from great distribution by all, using the full pitch width before he went in for a try converted by Downey. Clon were safe at 29-7. Ballina hit back with a try from their winger Ian West. An amazing touchline conversion from Ronan Connolly narrowed the gap.

Ballina tried to run the ball out of their 22, but a Downey tackle dislodged the ball into the grateful arms of Matthew McCarthy, who sprinted the 20 metres to score. Berti converted.

Worse was to come for the hosts when a sweeping move started from a Clon scrum on their 22 and ended when Jim Twomey came through at a wonderful angle to split the defence for a super try on 73 minutes.

Man-of-the-match Ben Lovell rounded off the try-fest four minutes later when a training ground lineout play between Ryan and Jonas Van der Velde made significant ground before Berti broke away for the line. He was hauled down five metres out but the quick rucking saw the ball moved through many hands to Lovell on the outside. The centre went in for his hat-trick. Twomey converted to leave the final score 48-14.

Team manager Hugh O’Neill was reflective post-match.

‘The outcome was obviously pleasing, but Ballina are a fine side and they made it hard for us,’ he said.

‘We were forced into errors and we were probably flattered by the scoreboard at the end, as we capitalised on a few of their errors with some great individual performances, which may not have reflected the general momentum at times. We'll take it and the work-ons into training and prepare for next week.’

The next round of the Energia All-Ireland Cup will be on November 14th, but for now, O’Neill, coaches Michael Peter O’Regan and James Mulcahy and the squad will be focusing on the visit of Kinsale to The Vale in the Munster League on Sunday at 2.30pm.

The Clonakilty squad was Jack Ryan (captain), Tom Doyle, Gearóid O’Donovan, James Deegan, Olan Deane, Donnacha Walsh, Matthew McCarthy, Abraham Tamargo Vinces, Patrick McCarthy, Eoin Downey, Jim Twomey, Ben Lovell, Dane Masthew, Derry O’Donovan, Corrado Berti, Dave Jennings, Chris Walton, Ciarán McCarthy, Luke McCarthy, Dara Walsh, Jonas Van der Velde and Finnian Neville.