U20s 15 – St Marys 7

After securing their Premier 2 League status last week, Galwegians U-20’s got their League campaign off to a winning start when they overcame St. Mary’s College from Dublin at Crowley Park on Sunday afternoon.

The Blues got off to a promising start with an early penalty from Barry Walsh.

Both teams tried to run the ball at every opportunity, showing great confidence in their abilities, even when at times the better option would have been to go for territory. The Galwegians set-piece started badly but they gradually got more and more into the speed of the game and began to dominate up front.

The strongish breeze favoured Mary’s in the first half, so it was somewhat against the run of play when Galwegians left wing Neil Mulcahy capitalised on a defensive fumble and raced away to score under the posts, which was converted by Barry Keogh to give the home side a slightly fortuitous 10-0 lead at the break.

Although playing against the elements after the restart, the visitors got right back into the game when they scored a converted try in the third quarter to reduce arrears to 10-7. This left things delicately poised entering the final quarter, however credit to the young Wegians side who gave the perfect response when they hit back with another try minutes after the restart. Right-winger Ewan Heapes grabbed an intercept to score out on the right, and although unconverted, this put the Blues two scores clear at 15-7.

In the final quarter St Mary’s piled on the pressure and camped on the Wegian line, but try as they might could not break down the excellent defence of the home forwards who succeeded in shutting their Dublin opponents out  to secure a deserved victory. Next up for the young Blues is  away to Trinity College on 4^thNovember with further difficult matches to follow against Greystones, Old Wesley and Buccaneers before Christmas.