Old Wesley 20s remain calm and open their Prem 1 campaign with an away win. Terenure 13 Old Wesley 30
In the space of 2 weeks the u20s once again faced Terenure’s u20s this time in the league and came away with a 3 try to 1 victory in Lakelands this afternoon. With fine displays from the half backs who between Watson and Quinn scored 25 out of the 30 points and once again came out on top of a spirited Terenure team. Liam Foot scored also from fullback so while all the points were delivered from a slick back line the hard work was done in the pack to set the platform for the backs to shine.
Terenure and Wesley traded penalties in the 1st ten minutes and then at the 15-minute mark Eoin Quinn scored his second kick of the game to extend the visitors lead to 3-6 playing into a swirling breeze on a sunny autumnal afternoon. Prior to the 2nd kick Old Wesley didn’t take 2 kickable opportunities instead going for the corner on one occasion and taking a tap and go the second time. However, they failed to score on both occasions with fine Terenure defence reliving the pressure.
Just before the 20-minute water break Liam Foot scored his first try for the club following a great back line move that resulted in the try scored just to the left of the posts. Quinn added a conversion and Wesley moved to 3-13 ahead.
There were 2 injuries to Old Wesley at this point with Jack Fish and Tim Elliot both having to leave the pitch and were replaced by Ralph Ledwidge and Ryan Strong , who made his debut for the club following a season long injury last year. Shortly afterwards Ewan Watson made one of several sniping breaks and was just held up when a pass to the wing may have put Adam Kileen over in the corner. However, after another solid platform laid down by the pack, the back line cut loose, and Watson was in for a well worked try and the metronome of Quinn added the conversion, and the sides went in at half time with Old Wesley 3-20 ahead.
The second half saw Wesley play with the wind, but it was the home team who dominated the opening 20 minutes of this half. Their reward after 10 minutes in this half was a score by their pack however, they did not secure the conversion and the score moved to 8-20. After more periods of pressure and some stout defence both in the set piece and in open play Terenure mauled their way over to score again left of the post almost in the same position. Again the conversion was missed so the score moved to 13-20 with 15 minutes to play.
On 65 minutes Eoin Quinn had an opportunity for a long range penalty on the left of the pitch and was just short and this came from a twin hit and poach on the Terenure attacker who felt the full force of the Offaly brothers tackling. On the other side of the pitch, again from strong forward play with Jack Farrelly, Max Merren, Shane Cawley and Jake Caldbeck putting in immense shifts for the full 80 minutes, Eoin Quinn was successful with a kick from a similar distance and the score moved to 10 points clear 13-23 with just under 10 minutes left to play. Leon Gallagher went close with a kick chase into the corner but narrowly was beaten to the ball.
Minutes later Ewan Watson rounded off a fine performance when he was first to react to a kick ahead and dot down for the team’s 3rd try just at the final whistle. Quinn once again stepped up and slotted over the afters and the final whistle sounded with the away team good value for their 13-30 win and points in the bag.
Next week will be home to UCD and the team is determined to put a better account of itself following the heavy McCorry cup defeat a number of weeks ago. For now, job done and 4 points in the bag leaving us 4th in the league with a long way to go.