West Offaly Lions News

Best of luck to the U13 squad this Sunday who will make a long trip to Ballina too take on Ballina in the Connacht Cup, the side have been playing well under the excellent guidance of Conor Galvin and have preformed well in their recent outings against Buccaneer's and Ballinasloe, lets hope this good run of form carries through to Sundays game and their run in the Connacht cup is extended.

Seniors

The seniors took on a strong Connemara side last Sunday and the lads from the west showed no signs of fatigue as they tore into the Lions from the off, it was a tit for tat affair in the first half with West Offaly forcing the game and making a lot of errors and mistakes which lead to a very stop start first period, Tom Gilligan did cross the line in the first half and what seemed to everyone else a perfect try the referee deemed it had been held up and the score was not allowed but the Lions did start to play and begin to put in the phases and it was shaping up to be an interesting second half. The lions hit the ground running in the second half and start to build on the last few minutes effort in the first half but the strong Connemara defence didn't relent posing a strong wall to break down but as the half wore on it looked only a matter of time before the deadlock was going to be broken and it eventually was some strong work by the forwards got the lions inside the Connemara 22 and with some neat hands released Ronnie Guinan through for the games first try, a few minutes later Gramps put a nice chip through for Jeff Cuskley to touch down in the corner and in the dying minutes of the match Jason Clancy went through as well to finish the day off on a high, the Lions finished up the day 20 - 0 but were made work for every point, it will have to be a much better performance against UCG who proved to be the Lions stumbling block last season especially with the promotion battle heating up as the season draws to an end, the top 4 teams are all still in contention for promotion with Creggs top on 39 West Offaly on 38 and Loughrea snapping on West Offaly's heals in third its all a little to close for comfort and looks as though it will go right down to the final game. The Lions so far have the strongest defence this season in the league with the least amount points against and this is testament to the huge effort been put in by coaches and players and it would be a shame to see all that effort go to waste so starting this Sunday with the students West Offaly will be doing everything in their power to ensure a strong performance and a mouth watering finale Sunday 3 weeks in Creggs.

Development team

The development team travelled to Monivea last Sunday to take on the team top of the table and the home side showed exactly why they are top with a clinical performance beating the Lions 43 - 7 in a tough hard battle as these games always prove to be, the Lions never gave up and with some players missing due to injury and been called up to the first team to fill the voids the Lads acquitted them selves well and it was good to see some old faces back in the side and hopefully we will see them for the remainder of the season.