Lewis eyeing victory over Blackrock after tense triumph
THE only way is up for Greystones RFC manager Kevin Lewis.
Having guided his side to their first victory over the weekend, he is now plotting their next victory as they take on Blackrock College on Friday.
‘Stones had suffered five defeats in five prior to the weekend’s slender victory over Galwegians which actually saw them leapfrog Blackrock ahead of their showdown in Stradbrook.
It was not a match for the faint-hearted but Lewis had confidence that his side would not throw things away late on.
“We’ve been used to tense matches! In three of our first five matches we ended up with bonus points and we could have won them so this time we came out on the right side of it and it was very nice to come out on the right side today.
“We had one of the best defences in the whole of the AIL last year. We had slipped a little bit on that in the last few weeks but we always felt that when we were under pressure that we would deliver and we delivered today.”
Greystones notched one try as scrumhalf Andy Roberts touched down from what seemed to be an overcooked line-out but it was all part of the plan for Lewis who would have celebrated a second try had Barry Fitzpatrick not fumbled the ball on the try-line.
“That was a pre-planned move! It’s always nice when a pre-planned move comes off. In fairness to Jack Keating and Andy Roberts, they both played very well.
“Unfortunately, I think Barry might have got white-light fever but he certainly looked like he was almost over! In fairness to Barry, he works really hard and he doesn’t block that down by accident – he does that very often.”
The victory over the Galway men may have pushed Greystones off the foot of the table but they’ve a long way to go to satisfy Lewis.
“The plan has always been to push up but unfortunately we’ve had a massive number of injuries this season and we’re reeling from losing our captain too. We’re probably missing 10 players at the moment but the squad is big enough to handle it.
“We feel that in this league, everybody will lose matches and hopefully we won’t lose anymore.
“That’s (Blackrock) another eight-pointer and we’ll look forward to that.
“We’ve a very young squad – the average age is about 23. They’ve huge careers ahead of them and they’ve done very well to be in this league to begin with. The learning that they’ll get here will be great for them.”