Malone win thriller against Bruff in Killballyowen

Malone made the long trip south of Limerick to Killballyown to play Bruff in their return fixture having been victorious in the meeting earlier in the season.Malone started well and were rewarded with an early score when the ball was hacked ahead by Johnny Burgess, as Burgess followed up his first kick he attempted to hack on again but failed to strike the ball. Michael Barker was able to get boot to ball and his chase saw him touch down ahead of the Bruff defender to score, leaving Josh Pentland with an easy conversion.

Malone ahead by 0-7 increased their lead when after a scrum the ball was moved wide by Johnny Creighton to Josh Pentland, Pentland then passed back inside to Johnny Creighton who took the ball at pace and made a superb break, he passed inside to centre Johnny burgess who made a superb offload under pressure to fullback Taylor Acheson who showed the home defence a clean pair of heels to score Malone's second of the day, Josh Pentland ahain added the conversion to give Malone a 0-14 lead.

Bruff continued to pressure Malone using their big and abrasive pack and were rewarded with a couple of penalty opportunities which were both squandered. Malone scored there third try when after a Bruff line out on the 10 metre line was claimed the home side attacked through their forwards but Malone prevented a breakout, Bruff wet forced to attempt a box kick by the replacement scrum half but Niall Shannon was able to block the kick and ground the ball to score, leaving Josh Pentland the easiest of conversions.

it looked like the visitors were on for the bonus point but the home side had other ideas as the opening half drew to a close they scored through winger Cosgrove, which went unconverted to leave Malone ahead at the interval.

The second half saw the home side dig deep and they used their big pack to great use use, they were rewarded with two further trie after periods of heavy pressure, through Michael Carroll and John hill, a conversion from Brian Cahill reduced the arrears to 17-21. Bruff now in the last 10 minutes of the game felt the win was within their grasp and Malone appeared to be in all sorts of difficulty buy a kick for touch to give the a 5 metre attacking line out opportunity failed to hit the target and the Malone joy was palpable.

In the last seconds of the game Bruff put Malone under the cosh when after a kick the ball was gathered by Taylor Acheson who decided to run the ball out of defence but was caught by a number of Bruff players and was shown a yellow card for holding onto the ball apparently this was award due to persistent Malone infringements, Malone players had also been on the receiving end of two earlier yellows

Malone withstood the last attack from the home side and the game came to a close with Malone wining the game by 17-21.

This was a hard fought game and Malone can take a lot of credit for the manner in which they played the game.