West Offaly Lions News

A late try deep into the second half gave West Offaly Lions the Connacht J1B title for 2010 in what was a game of games.

It was just rewards for the Lions who in fairness dominated the game from start to finish but it was by no means an easy task and creggs showed why they were top of the table throughout the season and why the two best teams had to play out such a fixture to separate them on this final day.

Creggs went into the game needing just a win to see them through where West Offaly had a much more daunting task of not only needing the win but also the bonus point try to seal the league, and the fact that Creggs had only conceded 4 tries all season long the task look almost unachievable but it was shaping up to be a mouth watering game. The game kicked off at 3pm and it was evident to see that the nerves were there with the Creggs kicker failing to make the 10 meters from the kick off so we had our first scrum and this scrum like the rest through out the game set the tone, neither side was going to give an inch and any ground made was going to be hard made. The two teams tore into each other with big hits been dealt from both sides, and to the first real chance of the game the West Offaly defence strayed offside at a ruck to give Creggs their first pop at the West Offaly posts but luckily for the Lions the kick went narrowly wide. As the half progressed West Offaly started to get into the flow of things and pressuring the Creggs defence which held up strong but with constant pressure they too strayed offside giving the Lions there first real opportunity but Out half Donal Corbett snatched at the chance and it too went wide of the posts but you could sense that the game was about to change and the side to make the first break would find form and luckily for the lions it was them with Donal Corbett weighting a perfect kick into the corner for Jeffery Cuskley to touch down and Corbett made no mistake from the sideline splitting the posts, 7-0 to the Lions. With the first half coming to a close Creggs took the opportunity to put three points on the board with a penalty kick. West Offaly Lions lost their very influential second row player Anthony Quinn who was sin binned for what appeared to be a very harsh decision for excessive rucking. This brought the half time score to 7-3 in favour of the Lions.

From the restart the fourteen man Lions team were under pressure as Creggs upped the pace of their game but this young lions team held firm. With Anthony Quinn returning to the field, the Lions proceeded to put Creggs under immense pressure ending with a great try by man of the match George Mooney and converted by Donal Corbett.

The Lions struck again for their third converted try by Donal Corbett after some brilliant passes from Paul Deely and Brian Gleeson. Two substitutions were to follow for the Lions, Conor Galvin for Colm Malone and Stephen Cornally for Richie Clancy. Most of the remaining fifteen minutes of the game was played on the Lions line, but for some ferocious defending by the Lions Creggs seemed destined to score on several occasions. This was not to be Creggs day. Once again the Lions were unfortunate to loose prop Tomas Bennett who was sinned binned with 4 minutes left.

In one final effort, centre Tom Gilligan ripped the ball from a Creggs player. He then passed to Corbett who kicked the ball forward ending in a maul ten metres from the Creggs posts. Anthony Quinn with the ball in his hands made a powerful drive to the line to score West Offaly Lions bonus point try to crown them league champions. Corbett drop kicked the conversion on the final whistle leaving the score 28-3. This was the Lions best team performance throughout this league campaign. The J1B Cup was presented to an inspiring captain of two years Ronan Guinan by Connaught competitions secretary Robert Laeff.

West Offaly Lions wish to thank all our sponsors in particular our food sponsor Supermacs of Ferbane.

Sincere thanks to all our local media for all your coverage of our games throughout the year.