Good work undone
Five defeats in a row puts major dent in promotion hopes
GREYSTONES WANDERERS 3 19
THE rich promise generated in the earlier stages of their All-Ireland League campaign has given way to deep disappointment as Greystones once more failed to regain the winning formula.
Alarmingly, Saturday’s Division 2B reverse against Wanderers, played in atrocious weather conditions at Dr Hickey Park, was the fifth defeat on the trot suffered by the green-and-white hooped brigade, and followed on an emphatic 27-3 away loss to Sligo in their previous outing.
In contrast, ‘Stones had tasted success in seven of their initial nine contests, but the last victory was recorded as far back as December 14, when Kevin Lewis’s charges edged Blackrock on a 27-25 margin at Stradbrook.
Prior to Christmas, Greystones had entertained justifiable high hopes of sealing promotion to Division 2A by the time they conclude their league programme with a home fixture against Malahide on April 20, but now a serious revision will have to be made of those aspirations.
Understandably, it’s a situation which has caused serious concern and disappointment for the Greystones coach, who, following the 16-point defeat by Wanderers, said: ‘Unfortunately all the good work we did before Christmas has been undone by the way the results have gone for us in our last five matches, and it’s put a big dent in our promotion hopes.
‘However, starting with the game against Belfast Harlequins on Saturday, we have got to do our utmost to get a win under our belt and go on to finish as high as we can in the table.
‘In all the five matches we’ve lost since Christmas, the conditions have been absolutely Arctic-like and this hasn’t seemed to suit us at all,’ added Lewis, whose side could manage only a first-half penalty from Andrew Kealy in reply to their opponents’ tally of three tries and two conversions over the 80 minutes.
In fact, Greystones’ fate was virtually sealed by the half-time break when they trailed 5-3, having played with the gale-force wind in the opening 40 minutes.
‘With the strength of the wind there today, we probably needed to score 20 points in the first half to be in with a chance at half-time of going on to win the game,’ rued Lewis on his side’s performance prior to the break.
‘It was very disappointing that the try we conceded in the first half resulted from Wanderers winning a scrum against the head, something which is very rare in rugby nowadays.
‘However, in the last 20 minutes of the game we virtually owned the ball and applied a lot of pressure on the Wanderers line. And perhaps if we had played like that earlier the outcome of the game would have been different.’
Ironically, the home side could scarcely have made a more favourable start to the contest, with Kealy landing his penalty from about 35 metres, with just four minutes gone on the clock.
On 20 minutes, Greystones’ Paudie Geoghegan went close to intercepting a Wanderers move which might have presented with the big left-winger with an opportunity for a try.
But almost immediately the Ballsbridge outfit underlined their menace when full-back Niall O’Donoghue displayed a blistering turn of pace, making about 30 metres in a run deep in the opposing half before he was brought to a halt.
Five minutes later, Wanderers’ No 8 Tom Walsh touched the ball down, but referee John Carvill brought play back for a scrum, and from the resultant exchanges prop Kieran Stokes dived over to put his side 5-3 up, prior to out-half Conor Byrne being off-target from a difficult conversion.
Just before the break, ‘Stones engineered a favourable try-scoring opportunity when forcing a scrum only about five metres out from the opposition line, but to the serious
disappointment of the home crowd the visitors turned the ball over.
On the restart, only five minutes had elapsed when following a line-out in the left corner of the Greystones half, scrum-half McQuaid dived over for a try, which was converted by Byrne from almost on the touch-line, extending Wanderers’ advantage to 12-3.
Shortly afterwards, full-back Mark Myler knocked on a pass from Geoghegan when ‘Stones had an opportunity of making some ground from his own half, and it was not until the 55th minute that the home side succeeded in bringing play into the opposition half for the first time in the second period.
But midway through the half Wanderers virtually closed the door on Greystones, when following a scrum about 35 metres out, prop Aaron O’Callaghan showed an outstanding amount of pace by racing away from the cover to score his side’s third try.
Once again, Byrne added the extra points, putting Wanderers 19-3 in front.
Commendably, following this score, ‘Stones considerably upped the quality and effort of their performance and the remaining 20-plus minutes was largely played in the visitors’ half.
However, the Wanderers defence never looked like buckling in the face of some strong pressure, leaving the Greystones players a dispirited and disappointed group at the final whistle.
Predictably, Wanderers’ coach Eoin Sheriff was delighted with the outcome. ‘Obviously our aim is to get promoted and today’s win is a big help in that regard,’ he said afterwards.
Photos: Leigh Anderson
‘Over the last two years or so, Greystones are a team we’ve found hard to beat and they play a very exciting brand of rugby.
‘Before Christmas, we lost to them at Stradbrook, but we learned a lot of lessons from that game which we put into practice in today’s game.’
Mark Myler; Ferdia Kenny, Andrew Kealy, Jason Curran, Paudie Geoghegan; Matt O’Brien, Killian Marmion; Dan Mau’u, Darragh Higgins, Conor Pearse, Ben Carolan, Chris Simmonds, Rob Connolly, Cormac O’Donoghue, Dan Mannion.
GREYSTONES: WANDERERS:
Niall O’Donoghue; Cian Doody, Rob Clune, Martin O’Neill, Cathal Martin; Cormac Byrne, Conor McQuaid; Kieran Stokes, Brian Vaughan, Aaron O’Callaghan. Marl O’Reilly, Geoff Mullan, Brian Quill, Conor Fenlon, Tom Walsh.
REFEREE:
John Carvill.