Defeat for the second XV
THE WEXFORD Wanderers second XV hosted Tullow at Park Lane on Sunday in the second part of a cup double-header in the quarter-final of the Provincial Towns Seconds Cup.
Wanderers seconds, who have injected renewed impetus into the club this season, finished runners-up in their league, narrowly losing out to eventual winners Athy over the home and away legs by less than five points.
Entering the Provincial Seconds Towns Cup, Wanderers knew that stiff competition was going to come their way with a number of clubs across the province choosing to enter their first XVs rather than enter the Bank of Ireland Provincial Towns Cup.
On their cup journey Wanderers saw off the challenge of New Ross seconds before hosting the Clane first XV who were dispatched to allow Wanderers progress to the quarter-finals, the furthest the Wexford side have progressed in this competition in over a generation.
The fact that the last outing for the team was against Clane six weeks ago did not help as other fixtures were rescheduled to complete leagues across the province. Indeed, Tullow have been heavily active with their first XV progressing to the Towns Cup final.
The action at Park Lane last Sunday started at a frantic pace, with Wexford capitalising on early Tullow indiscipline to score an early penalty through the boot of Waters with less than five minutes gone.
However, Tullow struck back quickly and scored in the right corner to snatch the lead. Wexford once again pressed from the re-start and competed well with Tullow across the pitch.
Tullow found a gap in the Wanderers defence and scored a second under the posts to increase the lead to twelve. From the restart Wanderers worked the ball through the phases before Tullow surrendered Waters a second penalty kick, but unfortunately on this occasion the ball ricocheted back off the upright.
From the clearance Tullow worked up the park and from a steal at a Wexford line-out they broke hrough once again in the right corner.
Wanderers rallied with seconds left before the interval, and through Hudson’s positional kicking they forced Tullow into desperate defending on their line, with Grant and Rowe both unlucky not to have scored. At the interval the scoreline was 17-3 in Tullow’s favour with all to play for.
In the second period Wanderers picked the game up a notch but almost immediately after the restart the game was temporarily halted due to a serious neck injury to a Tullow player. Following a brief consultation between the referee and team managers, the game was moved to the reserve pitch where the action once again took off.
Wanderers fought hard through the half and on a number of occasions looked to have breached the Tullow defence, only for the visitors to halt the Wexford attackers.
Similarly Wanderers gave no quarter and despite strong pressure from Tullow no further scores were conceded by either side. The final score remained as it did at half time, 17-3 to Tullow.
For Wanderers the Provincial Seconds Cup is over but as a club the development of the second team and it’s performance for the entire season makers a line in the sand for the Senior section of the club to progress next season and beyond.
Wexford: Robert O’Leary, Kevin Birney, Jason Guirrine, Patrick Toomey, Rory O’Connor, Nick Jones, Graham Grant, John Rowe, James Bolger, Tommy Hudson, Callum Murphy, Noel Richards (capt.), Richie Waters, Owen Cardiff, Aaron O’Neill. Subs. - Alan Kinsella, Willie Morris, James Byrne, Aaron Smythe, Chris Vickery.