v Old Wesley
UCD 10 - 26 Old Wesley
The Under 20 B’s fresh from their victory over Trinity came up against a very good Old Wesley side in Donnybrook ON Thursday night and despite showing tremendous spirit and adventure we came out the wrong side of a 26 -10 score line. The team showed seven changes from the previous weekend (one of them positional) and four of these were in the backs where Rory Allwright & Doug Lynch started their first matches of the season.
We struggled out of touch for the whole game and as a result of this Collidge were unable to get a real foothold in the match. Consequentially we were unable to build any periods of sustained pressure and more often than not we would lose the line out and Wesley would be able to clear the danger.
UCD started well and soon found ourselves in the Wesley 22 but we were unable to turn this pressure into points despite the efforts of Chris Spellman (replacing the injured Stephen Hemmingway at scrum half), Jack Hogan and James Hayes. Wesley were looking to move the ball at every opportunity and it took some good defence from Rory Allwright, Philip Lewis and Colm McSharry to keep them out. Unfortunately Wesley eventually scored but it was a try that should have been stopped at numerous points but in fairness Wesley took advantage of the poor Collidge tackling to make the score seven points to nil.
UCD can have no complaints about Wesley’s second try which thanks to good hands and quick recycling saw the Collidge eventually beaten by the right winger – who in an effort to score nearer the posts very nearly went over the dead ball line but managed to somehow avoid the line while touching down.
Collidge’s only score of the first half was a Rory Allwright penalty just before half time.
Wesley scored two more tries in the second half and both were largely due to some very poor UCD tackling. In fairness though as we were struggling out of touch for so much of the game the guys did have to defend for large periods of the game but still these tackles should have been made.
One of the most pleasing aspects from a Collidge point of view was that the heads never went down and despite being 26 – 3 down and thanks to some excellent captaincy from Maurice Deasy UCD kept attacking right to the final whistle. Our efforts were eventually rewarded with a James Brady try in the dying moments after some good work from Jack Hogan.
As you can imagine lineouts, tackling and breakdown work will feature prominently at training this week.
Men of the Match for UCD: Jack Hogan and James Hayes.
After the final whistle I had to ask myself WWMD………….What Would Murph Do!! (Well there has to be one Murph gag in here!!)