Captain Wallace Delivers Despite “Power” Cut, by player-reporter Dave Heelan
Metro League Div 6 – Old Wesley 34 Dublin University 5
There was a whiff of freshness in the air last Saturday in the pre-match build up to the 4ths game at home to Trinity with Tommy Noonan’s new all black boots on show and Toaler’s hair looking as magnificent as always as he completed his pre-match weights session as the rest of the team looked on.
The match kicked off with heavy pressure from Old Wesley resulting in a penalty kicked by AndrewHandcock who appeared to have his kicking boots on after some good work from Boyler and Sam Moore in the forward exchanges. Despite Wesley giving away a number of penalties during the first quarter, a trend which would continue throughout the game, Captain Peter Wallace got over from close range near the Trinity posts after Shane “Diggity Diggs” Deignan had gone close previously. Handcock kicked the conversion to make it 10-0. Pressure from the Wesley forwards again in the Trinity 22 resulted in the ball being thrown out wide to Handcock who beat his opposite man to touch down in the corner to make it 15-0. The conversion was missed.
Half time brought a number of changes with young and old being introduced through coach Clatchy’s controversial player switching policy. However, it was Deignan, who was lively enough to pick an excellent line from a Wesley ruck and sprinted past the covering Trinity defenders to score from 35 meters out. Handcock converted again to make it 22-0. Further poor discipline from Wesley provided field position for Trinity within the Wesley 22 who capitalised well when their centre ran through some weak tackling to make it 22-5. Wesley continued to keep the pressure on after the kick-off despite losing Phil Power to the sin bin. However, Captain Wallace marched his team into the opposition 22 and expertly hit his man in the line-out as stand in hooker, in a phase of play which ended with pacey second row Max Lane again showing his speed to get through to the line after a number of good Wesley build up phases to make it 27-5. Despite having to listen to old man Heelo spout more rubbish about something rugby related, Wesley got over again for a 5th try through Mark McDonald after coming tantalisingly close through David “the Power” Flower. Handcock converted to make it 34-5 before the match came to a close.
Wesley now look forward to next week’s game against Naas when Max Lane will be providing the match report.