Glorious rugby performances
ALL three men’s senior teams secured vital points on Saturday. Sligo 2nd XV 17 – Westport 10. The Sligo Development Team made it two wins from two to carry their momentum upon returning to the Connacht J1a League. This was a hard-fought win in tough blustery conditions in Hamilton Park. The first half was a tight affair with Sligo playing into the wind. Sligo took the lead through the robust Garry O’ Hehir. After a series of forays to the Westport line with strong carries from Craig Adams and David Cawley. The ever opportunist O’ Hehir made a pacey snipe from the base of the ruck catching the Westport team off guard and dotting down for 5. In the second half and with a strong wind behind them the Westport Bulls found themselves with a lot more possession and territory and eventually after a strong break up the guts snagged themselves a converted try. Sligo fought back and with impact from the bench in the form of Liam Mc Elhinney and Sean Wynne, they began to take a foothold in the game and after some pressure talismanic Skipper Mat Davey powered over with a real captain’s effort.
Westport tied up the scores with a penalty from the half way line to leave the scores even at 10 each with 10 to go. Sligo’s fitness shone through in the last quarter and the seemed to find an extra gear when needed. After some great expansive play in tough conditions the winning try was scored by Brian Mullen, who backed himself to outpace his opposite number and then cut inside the last defender to seal the game for Sligo. TEAM: Craig Adams, Ross O’Boyle, Aaron Tansey, Micheal Mc Morrow, David Cawley, Mat Davey ©, Simon Coulter, Jake Sexton, Garry O Hehir, Enda Gavin, Brian Mullen, Sean Mullin, Andrew Blannin, Charlie Cooper, Niall Gray. Reserves: Shane Mc Guinness, Liam Mc Elhinney, Sean Wynne, Julian Ripon, Carl Van Rensburg.
The Sligo 3rd XV wrapped up pre-season in flying fashion with a 62-5 demolition of Carrick-on-Shannon RFC. The seagulls have now won 3 from 3 in pre-season, scoring an impressive 144 points and are eagerly awaiting the start of the J2 season. This will be the first time in over 30 years that Sligo will have a 3rd XV in league competition.
Try scorers on the day were Stuart O’Brien with 4, Henri Liot de Nortbécourt and Jean de Roquefeuil with 2 each, Sean Donnelly and Mark Harte with 1 apiece. Try scorers took the conversion with Sean Donnelly being the exception, letting the evergreen Jamie Bowes live out a dream of taking a kick. Notable mention to David Cummins, who sportingly helped Carrick when they lost a man through injury to play on with them and scored Carricks try.
Move of the day belonged to a deadly combination of Stuart O’Brien with a quick taking cross-field kick to Mark Harte, who raced home to score a fantastic try on his debut, to rapturous applause from the home support. Sligo 3rd XV kick off their season at home in Hamilton Park on Sunday 1st October to Connemara RFC.
Sligo U16s began their season on Sunday last in sunny Strandhill against Castlebar. Sligo were looking forward to the challenge with a strong squad of 26 players. Unfortunately Castlebar arrived with a reduced numbers but it was decided to go ahead with the game. Castlebar started well breaking through the Sligo defence on a few occasions but failed to capitalise. Sligo eventually began to get in to their rhythm with Jim Davies scoring a superb try which was converted by Daire Cregg. This was followed by another well worked try scored and converted by Cregg. Castlebar continued to push eventually scoring an excellent try by Patrick Dixon. The second half started off well for Sligo with man of the match Josh Cronin scoring another try for the home side.The game finished with a resounding victory for Sligo with a final score of 33 to 15.