Wesley snatch unlikely victory

With a quite startling turnaround in form, Wesley College came good to win their first Senior League title at Donnybrook yesterday. It was midway through the second half before Wesley put their first points on the board with a penalty from Brian Hastings. More significantly though, that was their first glimpse of a score as Kilkenny had dominated the opening half.

Wesley were perhaps the more willing to run the ball but the Kilkenny defence kept their line tight and helped set up centre Russell Armstrong with two penalties. The first, after five minutes and an even more impressive kick on 12 minutes had them 6-0 up, a lead they held to the break.

Armstrong added his third penalty from four attempts with the second half just five minutes old and for a long time it appeared that could be enough to win. However, Wesley finally broke into scoring territory to give Hastings his first successful kick on goal after 52 minutes. Not long after, the Wesley forwards drove into the corner following a line-out and Stuart Abbott touched down for the only try of the game.

A quite superb conversion from Hastings put Wesley in front and they then had the momentum to keep the pressure on Kilkenny and also hold off a late counter-attack from Kevin Stanley.

Scorers: Welsey - S Abbot try, B Hastings penalty, conversion; Kilkenny - R Armstrong three penalties.

Wesley College: R Leech; O Ashiru, N Correll, B Hastings, M Feely; M Hastings, G McCoy; D Rowe, K Corrigan (capt), A O'Connor, S Dawson, M Warburton, S Abbott, M Gray, S Wallace.

Kilkenny College: G Deane; R Deverell, C Peavoy, R Armstrong (capt), K Masterson; G Jacob, R Jones; G Roe, D James, B Thompson, J Kidd, P Ryan, K Stanley, S Holland, J Harvey.

Referee: G McFadden (ARLB).