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.

An inept first half performance by West offaly lions led to their first league defeat out of nine starts in the league.
The lions will now need to collect a bonus point in their last outing against Carrick on Sunday.But they havent done this all season so the chances of scoring 4 tries are remote even with a home venue unless the lions can have an inspired performance. Discipline as usual was the lions greatest opponent and unless players grow up and do what their asked then the hopes of promotion will be thrown away. NUIG had a very basic game plan, kick the ball behind the lions defence and wait for a mistake. Eventually it came with an intercept try and a mix up in defence just before half time and then a soft score after the break. Cue W.O.L. response as they realised too late that if you kick the ball against the wind its going to be returned with interest and they kept the ball in hand and scored a try, touched down by Anthony Quinn but unfortunatly it was not converted, the lions continued to storm the nuig line gaining penalties in front of the posts until a knock on brought the final whistle. It was a valuable lesson for the lions, but hopefully come next Saturday the lions will be victorious along with a bonus point.

Monivea did the double against a weakened development team despite a Myers try and Flaherty penalty the lions had countless opportunities to win the game but lack of training together left them wanting. It was a much improved performance on there last outing but performing isn't enough all to often the development team have performed well but its the result that really matters and this can only really be addressed with work on the training field and with two league game's left lets hope their on the right side of the results.

U14 match tbc next saturday

Mini training next sunday at 11.30 in the school field.

The month so far has seen some good and not so good displays from the lions on October the 5^th the lions played host to two teams, it was a momentous occasion as on this weekend the lions produced two senior teams the j2 teams who had a very exciting and hard contest against Ballinasloe and the j1 team had a tough had battle against a very well organised Buccaneer's u20 side, although both teams were on the end of defeats it was not going to take away from the occasion that was for a club that is very new to rugby and only in its second season in senior rugby producing two senior teams both of whom acquitted themselves very well against the two teams, who have had a lot more match practice than either lions team. There were some excellent displays from both team with Rogger and Jeffery putting in fine displays on both wings and Paddy Marshall at out half for the j2's and Ronnie, Quinny and Steve Rourke to name a few from the j1 team.

October the 12^th saw the visit of the Westport Bulls to the home of the Lions for a tough hard battle. Both side had met last season in j2 and if last season's matches were anything to go by this one was going to live up to expectation with the two teams going at each other from the off the Lions were to cross the line first with a Donall Corbett kick through which he touched down himself but the try was not given, this did not stop the lions from trying to penetrate the Westport defence with Tom Gilligan making some excellent line breaks and offloads and his hard work was duly rewarded with a sublime try in the closing stages of the first half, the second half started as the first had finished with huge intensity and work rate from 1 - 15 and it was Aidan Keenaghan who struck next with a great try on the wing and minutes later Anthony Quinn touched down after some hard dogged work from the forwards Jason Kelly converted and an earlier Matt Boland penalty left the score line 22 - 0. It was an excellent team display from everyone, from Frankie Kenna and Julian Walsh and Ciaran Coughlan in the forwards to Tom Gilligan, Ritchie Clancy and Aidan Keenaghan in the backline, no man gave a yard and it's a good reward to the hard work been put in by Charlie, Peter, Seamus and all those involved in the training sessions which are continuing every Tuesday and Friday night in the school pitch at half seven.

The j2 team travelled away to Galway to play OLBC and the team were severly hit by injuries, the went down bad to the OLBC team loosing 53- 0 it was a poor display considering the early preformance against Balinasloe which was overall a very good show by the lions, much work is needed if they are to compete at this level and extra numbers are needed at the training sessions, hopefully once injuries clear up and others return the j2 team will start to preform like they know they can, its give something to work on in training and the only way is up.