Well done to our u20s who have re-secured the Gerry Olin trophy for another year after a hard fought 16-7 win at home over Terenure RFC.
In what was an edge of the seat game between two evenly matched teams Old Wesley came out the victors 16-7 against Terenure in the 6th playing of the Gerry Olin Memorial trophy, played in Donnybrook today. The rain held off but there was a strong breeze that certainly influenced the tactics for both teams. While Old Wesley came away with the result the scoreline doesn’t reflect how close this game really was.
Terenure will probably rue a couple of missed penalty kicks in the 1st half and also were unlucky not to score a couple of tries particularly in the 2nd half when the looked certain to score. Throughout the match they dominated in the scrum but Wesley had the better of the lineouts both in attack on their own ball and in defence stealing a few crucial lineouts from the opposition
Wesley had the benefit of the accurate form of outhalf Eoin Quinn who kicked 3 penalties from 4 attempts and also landed the conversion on 76 minutes following Adam Killeen’s well taken try, following a mix up in the Terenure back line. With the strong breeze in the 2nd half and Quinn’s boot Wesley who were under pressure at times in their own 22 was able to make substantial yardage and relieve the pressure when needed.
Wesley opened the scoring after 15 minutes with the 1st of Quinn’s’ penalties but shortly afterwards Terenure were rewarded for their pressure and scored a try and added the conversion to leave the game 3-7 in favour of the visitors. It took 10 minutes in the 2nd half before Wesley scored their 2nd penalty with a long range effort from Quinn to reduce the score to 6-7.
Despite several penalties and some loose handling by both teams Terenure were not able to build on their lead and the Wesley defence was tested to the limit but remained resolute. Following a scrum collapse in the Nure 22 Wesley were probably lucky to get their 3rd penalty and take the lead on 70 minutes 9-7.
The try scored by Killeen added the gloss on the result and probably harshly for Terenure the final score of 16-7 didn’t reflect how close a game it was, however not scoring in the 2nd half
So for the Old Wesley u20s it has been a good couple of weeks to help prepare this young team for the league which is due to commence on the 10th October and the added satisfaction of a trophy will allow the team build on this momentum for the weeks ahead.
Old Wesley Captain Finn Tierney with Senior Deputy President Robbie Love and Team Manager Andy Miller