Galwegians celebrate Glenina anniversary in fine style

Galwegians 34

Old Crescent 0

Galwegians preserved their 100% home record then they notched-up a fourth successive bonus point win at Crowley Park against Old Crescent on Saturday.

This game was played under lights on a day Wegians were celebrating their 50th anniversary at Glenina. Playing in an unusual dark green strip to avoid a colour clash, the hosts made a comfortable start with two early Ross Shaughnessy penalties putting them 6-0 in front in the first 10 minutes.

They then signalled their intent to celebrate the anniversary in style when they bagged their first try in the 12th minute. It came from a trademark burst by full-back John Cleary who ran from inside his half, breaking three tackles before finding centre Jerome Harrimate on his shoulder who diver over near the posts to give Shaughnessy an easy conversion for a 13-0 lead.

The hosts added a second try before the end of the first quarter, when a powerful 5-metre scrum from the home pack sent the visitors reeling backwards. And when it was pulled down by the Crescent front-row, ref Jonny Erskine wasted no time in gong under the posts to award the score. Another simple Shaughnessy conversion made it 20-0 and ’Wegians were already out of sight.

There was no respite for the luckless visitors, and just on the half-hour mark they conceded try number three. It followed an excellent chip and chase by winger Ronan Moore who was desperately unlucky to knock on with the line at his mercy. However it mattered little, as from the resulting 5-metre put-in, Wegians hooker Conor Muldoon made a strike against the head, giving no. 8 Dan McCabe the chance to barrel his way over the line near the left-hand corner.

An excellent conversion from an in-form Shaughnessy made it 27-0, and at this stage a bonus point looked a formality for an utterly dominant Wegians side. However they failed to add to their tally before half-time, spurning some clear-cut opportunities in the process.

The second-half was an altogether different proposition. Although the visitors were reduced to 13 men at one stage, the visitors put in a decent performance in an attempt to salvage some pride.

Having made a few substitutions, ’Wegians rarely got out of their own half and were showing little sign of getting the bonus point. But on 70 minutes it duly arrived courtesy of another piece of magic from ace marksman Cleary.

Substitute scrum-half Caolin Blade deserves a lot of credit for creating the opportunity, making a blind-side break when his scrum was under serious pressure. The zippy Monivea man then fed the onrushing Cleary on halfway, who cut inside his man and raced home unopposed to seal the deal and dive over under the posts.