After a postponement on 5th October from bad weather, Westport U18.5 Boys finally got their Round 1 match v Galwegians on the grass of Carrowholly underway. The match kicked off with a strong Galwegians possession, who played with an south easterly breeze in their back, an ominous time for Westport But our boys settled quickly, absorbing strong, probing carries from the tribesmen and holding up, not one but two Galwegians tries. The defensive effort spurred on the locals to take action by robbing a Galwegians lineout on the Westport 5 yard line, a ruck or two later and an exit clearance collected by our winger, who brought it all the way inside the opposition 10. An intercept pass on the 10, ran in the visitors, crossing our line in the corner, missed conversion giving the visitors a 0-5 lead on the quarter mark.
Play mainly actioned up and down the centre of the pitch like two boxers sizing themselves up until Westport started to spread it wide and then back back, winning a penalty on the visitors 10 and a lineout almost to the 5. The resulting maul brought Westport over the tryline in the corner to level the score followed by 5 minutes of probing play from both sides to bring us to half time.
From the offset of the second half Westport camped in the opposition half moving the ball more freely from wing to wing with testing probes through the centre as well. The constant pressure delivered a tap & go on the 5 yard line, sucking in the Galway defence the ball was shifted to the wing where the Westport fullback touched down in the corner for a 10-5 lead.
The rest of the half was a series of raids of both teams into opposition halves only to be foiled by error or penalty. Westport's defence coped admirably on each tribesmen raid.
However one such raid, initiated from strong defence on the Westport 5 yard line to threaten inside the oppositions 22 and be awarded a rare converted penalty, the decisive score for Westport to see out the game and notch up another notable win, all the sweet having kept Galwegians to only one crossing of the Westport try line.
Final Score: Westport 13 – 5 Galwegians
A solid performance from the Westport U18.5s with plenty of positives to take and reduction of fouling to develop before their next outing to Loughrea, the only trajectory is up!
Try scorers: Penalties:
Felix Zeray (1), Finn Hanley (1) Cian Silke (1)
Team sheet.
Jack Danagher
Conor Moran
Paul Edmundson
Liam Geraghty
Callum O’Grady
Alex Dunlop
Jake Tunney Ware
Alan Gannon
Reuben Maguire
Cian Silke (U17)
William Duggan
Finn Hanley
Ross O’Connor
Brendon Witzl
Matthew Flannelly
Darragh O’Grady
Cormac Brawn
Dylan Moran
Liam Cadden (U17)
Felix Zeray (U17)
Play mainly actioned up and down the centre of the pitch like two boxers sizing themselves up until Westport started to spread it wide and then back back, winning a penalty on the visitors 10 and a lineout almost to the 5. The resulting maul brought Westport over the tryline in the corner to level the score followed by 5 minutes of probing play from both sides to bring us to half time.
From the offset of the second half Westport camped in the opposition half moving the ball more freely from wing to wing with testing probes through the centre as well. The constant pressure delivered a tap & go on the 5 yard line, sucking in the Galway defence the ball was shifted to the wing where the Westport fullback touched down in the corner for a 10-5 lead.
The rest of the half was a series of raids of both teams into opposition halves only to be foiled by error or penalty. Westport's defence coped admirably on each tribesmen raid.
However one such raid, initiated from strong defence on the Westport 5 yard line to threaten inside the oppositions 22 and be awarded a rare converted penalty, the decisive score for Westport to see out the game and notch up another notable win, all the sweet having kept Galwegians to only one crossing of the Westport try line.
Final Score: Westport 13 – 5 Galwegians
A solid performance from the Westport U18.5s with plenty of positives to take and reduction of fouling to develop before their next outing to Loughrea, the only trajectory is up!
Try scorers: Penalties:
Felix Zeray (1), Finn Hanley (1) Cian Silke (1)
Team sheet.
Jack Danagher
Conor Moran
Paul Edmundson
Liam Geraghty
Callum O’Grady
Alex Dunlop
Jake Tunney Ware
Alan Gannon
Reuben Maguire
Cian Silke (U17)
William Duggan
Finn Hanley
Ross O’Connor
Brendon Witzl
Matthew Flannelly
Darragh O’Grady
Cormac Brawn
Dylan Moran
Liam Cadden (U17)
Felix Zeray (U17)
