Old Wesley Flower Blossoms in Barnhall
Metro League Div 5 – Old Wesley 47 MU Barnhall 8
Tries: Flower (3), Claxton, Cresswell, Lane, Correll, Cons: Handcock (6)
(16th Oct) The Pumpkin season is upon us and Wesley kicked it off with a resounding victory over a dogged Barnhall, as they produced champagne rugby midst some gorgeous forest tapestry on a beautiful autumn day in MU Barnhall RFC. A physio down and with some make shift strapping from management, Barnhall could be forgiven for thinking they were facing a team fresh off the beaches of Normandy. As the final words of inspiration echoed around the changing room, a heavily medicated DT marched his troops out into the unknown.
Barnhall managed to exert themselves early in the game, with a series of strong carries down the centre (much to Glynner’s disapproval); they successfully converted a penalty from early pressure to lead 3-0. Wesley settled and responded, finding themselves deep in enemy territory following a line-out steal reluctantly pilfered by none other than Joe Wheatly. Marching further towards the 22 the ball was swept wide, so far wide indeed this reporter cannot be sure what exactly happened, but a spenceresque pass through the legs by Stevie Young set in motion intricate play between Glynner and Claxton. Claxton showing a surprise burst of pace, rolling back the years to dot down; with the conversion Wesley were up and running 7-3
The first half became a tense physical battle, with great carries from the Kinsale musketeer Andy Kelly, with the Barnhall number 7 feeling the physicality most coming off the worst from a titanic collision with Laner, shortly after the game began to swing in Wesley’s favour with two quick fire tries before half time from David Flower, spinning and twirling out of tackles to bag some meat under the post and out wide. Unfortunately with the sun in his eyes Handcock sliced the latter conversion to leave the half-time score of 19 – 3 Wesley.
Rousing words of encouragement from the coaching panel at half time, and with Glynner making slight adjustments to his look, we were ready to pick up where we left off. DT was howling at the moon and the battle lines were drawn once again. The second half began much like the first with Barnhall applying early pressure, but Wesley asserted themselves and broke out and some excellent play down the left between backs and forwards resulted in tries for David Flower and Guy Cresswell who scampered over in the corner, with successful conversions making it. 33-3. Two late tries came from Laner and Luke as the game became disjointed, end to end with errors. The scoring was not finished there, as Barnhall scored a late try from a maul as the Wesley forwards switched off at lineout time, leaving our Brazilian maestro Clayton to try beaver his way in, but to no avail
Wesley will now face Terenure on Friday under the bright lights of Donnybrook…the show goes on!!