Wanderers fourth in Division 2A table after home defeat to Cill Dara

WEXFORD WANDERERS 18 CILL DARA 24

THE WEXFORD Wanderers first XV hosted Cill Dara at Park Lane on Sunday in the latest round of Leinster League Division 2A.

Wanderers came into the game on foot of an impressive 39-5 win over local rivals New Ross and 18-8 over Portlaoise.

Cill Dara were the first to settle, scoring two tries in the opening 15 minutes before adding a third before the half hour mark.

Wanderers only seemed to settle into the game in the last ten minutes of the opening half when sustained pressure resulted in out-half Gannon scoring in the corner to leave the scores 17-5 at the interval.

In the second period Wanderers continued to pressurise Cill Dara and it paid off with the penalty count increasing significantly on the first period when there were just five for both sides.

On the 55-minute mark, replacement Seán Stafford converted a penalty to reduce the Cill Dara lead. Five minutes later he added a second to narrow the gap to six points.

Wanderers continued to push for a try to even up the scores, and when it came it was a result of inter-play between the O Corcora brothers, with Colm assisting in releasing replacement wing Seán to score to the right of the posts to give Stafford a relatively easy conversion to make it 18-17, the first time Wanderers took the lead.

Cill Dara continued to fight and eventually scored their fourth try under the posts with ten minutes left. Wexford continued to push for the elusive winning score and, despite the increasing penalty count (of which Cill Dara had nine and Wexford three in the second period), somehow Cill Dara prevented Wexford getting any closer than within two metres of their line despite the home side spending the last ten minutes camped on it.

The result left Wanderers with a losing bonus point which was really the only positive from the contest which could have been much different for the sake of a single score.

As it stands, Wanderers are fourth in the table behind Newbridge who defeated third-placed Clondalkin, and second-placed Portlaoise who beat local rivals New Ross on an identical scoreline to this contest at Park Lane. Next Sunday Wanderers have a long trek to face second bottom Mullingar in a contest they must win.

Wexford: Seán Redmond, Graham Grant, Bobby Clancy, John Turner, Darragh Kehoe (capt.), Tom Brennan, Luke Roche, Cartaigh Geoghegan, Kevin Roche, Paul Gannon, Callum Murphy, Colm O Corcora, Corey Carty, Liam Barry, Eoin Roche. Subs. - Seán Stafford, Robert O’Leary, Seán O Corcora, Cillian McConville.