‘Wegians blow their chances

Date Published: 27-Oct-2009

Galwegians managed somehow to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory as UCC scored a late smash and grab show to record a shock victory at a windy and rainswept Crowley Park on Saturday.

Leading 11-5 as the game entered injury-time, the Blues not only lost, but even managed to squander a losing bonus point, and in truth they have only themselves to blame.

Wegians came into this game as strong favourites against the College outfit who had lost eleven of their promotion- winning team from last year, and who had yet to register a win this season.

However, the students got off to the perfect start when Wegians’ out-half Ross Shaughnessy had a clearance kick in the second minute charged down near his goalline, with prop Will O’Donovan being credited with the game’s opening try.

Although playing with a swirling breeze slightly to their advantage, Galwegians seemed lethargic as they struggled to adapt to the elements.

Their line-out, which had been a bedrock of consistency thus far in the season, disintegrated in the admittedly very difficult conditions. And the visitors were dealing comfortably with anything which Wegians could throw at them. Indeed, the only first-half response from the home side was a 15th
minute penalty from Mark Butler to reduce arrears to 5-3, although the full-back was unlucky when another effort rebounded off the post soon afterwards.

After presumably some harsh words at the half-time team talk, the Blues started with intent and upped the tempo decidedly in the second half. A second penalty from Butler on 45 minutes had them in front for the first time. Their pack was finally beginning to take control of the forward exchanges, and referee David Keane began to lose patience with the visitors as he sin-binned two UCC forwards in the space of three minutes for persistent infringing.

Eventually the pressure told, and just before the hour mark Wegians extended their lead, when a clever chip from Shaughnessy set up Liam Bibo who grounded the ball for an unconverted try.

At 11-5 ahead entering the final quarter, the Blues needed another score to put some daylight between themselves and the visitors. They virtually owned possession and camped in the UCC 22 for almost the entire second-half, although quite how they did not manage to add to their tally remains a mystery. At one stage a succession of five metre scrum penalties seemed destined to lead to a second and possibly a penalty try, but crucially they were adjudged to have knocked on at the vital moment.

However, as the Blues frittered away chance after chance, the visitors remained in contention to cause an upset. And when another attack was wasted, a huge clearance kick by UCC outhalf Andrew Burke late on brought play deep into Wegians territory. This proved a turning point, as the winning score came soon afterwards on 78 minutes. It came from a well-worked lineout, aided and abetted by sloppy Galwegians defence, which saw the students grind their way forward, with no. 8 James Ryan claiming the touchdown under the posts. Burke made no mistake with the conversion to put the visitors 12-11 in front.

A shell-shocked Wegians had to now force the game, and when they knocked-on near half-way in stoppage time, the students hacked the ball forwards with winger Brian Derham winning the race to claim a third try in the right-hand corner. Burke’s magnificent touchline conversion rubbed salt deep into the wounds by denying Wegians the consolation of even a bonus point.

This result saw Wegians slide from third place to third from bottom in what is shaping up to be a very competitive Division 1b League. Next up for the Blues is a derby next Saturday in Athlone against local rivals Buccaneers, who will be buoyed by their shock 18-15 win away to Ballymena last Saturday.