Wanderers edge out Birr
WEXFORD WANDERERS BIRR 22 19 SUNDAY SAW Wexford Wanderers Senior men’s XV host perennial opponents Birr at Park Lane in the opening round of Division 2B of the Leinster League.
Both sides, who shared the honours last season, were welcomed onto the Park Lane pitch by Wanderers Under-10s and -11s who played a series of exhibition matches prior to kick-off and who also formed tunnels for players from both teams as they ran on.
The family atmosphere of the pre-match events culminated with Wanderers captain Aidan Stewart receiving the ball form his son, James, as he ran onto the pitch.
Both sides started the contest with gusto and Birr managed to get the opening score after just five minutes with an unconverted try.
Wanderers, however, dug deep and after excellent platform creation by the Wexford forwards the back line was released with veteran winger Noel Richards scoring in the right corner to balance the scoreline.
Ten minutes later Wexford doubled the lead with a similar movement with the ball moving quickly across the line and back to the left where captain Stewart was on hand to cross the line and score under the posts to give centre Colm O Corcora the easiest of conversions.
Wanderers for the rest of the period maintained the pressure and Birr indiscipline on the 35th minute afforded O Corcora the opportunity to add a penalty to increase the lead to 15-5 at the interval.
In the second period Wanderers introduced a number of substitutions and the game flowed for approximately ten minutes until Birr managed to find a gap to score a converted try to start pulling Wanderers back in.
Wanderers, however, stuck to the task and replacement winger Michael McGuire was unlucky to spill the ball as he crossed the try line.
Fifteen minutes later with Wanderers camped in the Birr ’22 and apparently waiting to get the elusive score, one of the Birr midfield players read a Wanderers pass and raced the length of the pitch to score a try.
Thankfully the Wanderers backs shadowed him to the try line and did enough to push him away from the posts and thus denied Birr the gift of the conversion points.
However, at this stage Birr were in front for the first time in over an hour with less than 15 minutes remaining.
Wanderers’ resolve held firm and from the re-start they worked their way up field, eventually being awarded a scrum on the Birr five-metre line. One attribute this Wexford team has in abundance is its forward strength and from the resulting scrum No. 8 and man of the match Darragh Kehoe scored the try which O Corcora converted.
From then on Wanderers just played the game safe, holding on to possession and denying Birr the ball and opportunity to attack.
The final score was 22-19 to Wexford, an important statement of intent early in the league campaign.
Next up for Wanderers is a trip to Athy next Sunday where they will be preceded by the second XV who will also play Athy in the opening round of their league campaign. Athy are also one of Wanderers’ familiar opponents with both sides having met four times last season, with Wanderers having taken three out of four contests including the opening round of the Towns Cup.
The action at the Showgrounds kicks-off with the second XV at 1.30 p.m. followed by the meeting of the first XV at 3 p.m. in a pair of encounters both sides must win. Anyone interested in playing rugby in the Wexford area is welcome to join the club for training on Wednesdays and Fridays at 7.30 p.m.
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Team: Aidan Stewart (capt.), Steven Roche, Dave Martin, John Turner, Chris Walsh, Mossie Earle, Nick Jones, Darragh Kehoe, Kevin Roche, Paul Gannon, Corey Carty, Colm O Corcora, Cartaigh Geoghegan, Noel Richards, Liam Barry. Subs. - Michael McGuire, Luke Roche, James Byrne, Kevin Birney, Graham Grant.