Galwegians came agonisingly close to bagging their second win of the AIL Division 2B campaign at home on Saturday, losing out by the narrowest of margins, 16-17, to the team one place above them in the table, Malahide.
Despite the predictably wet conditions at Crowley Park, both teams served up a decent contest, which was tight and tense and literally went down to the wire.
Malahide have found some recent form, including a shock win away to Corinthians three weeks ago, and they got off to a perfect start when they scored off their first attack. when centre Adam Kennedy dummied and ran through to score under the posts. Out-half Dave O’Halloran converted to put his team 7-0 up inside two minutes.
Wegians responded well, and in a first AIL start in three years, Morgan Codyre struck an excellent penalty into the wind, and took the lead with a try on 15 minutes - flanker Kacper Palamarczuk finishing off an excellent passage of play from both backs and forwards. Codyre nailed the touchline conversion to put the home side 10-7 ahead.
However the visitors struck next with a decisive and telling blow when from a penalty to the corner, winger Dan Hayes crossed near the posts, with O’Halloran’s conversion restoring his side’s four-point lead.
Wegians managed to claw it back with another Codyre penalty to leave it 14-13 at the break, and although they dominated the early stages of the second half, they were thwarted by the visitors' strong defence, while Codyre missed a penalty.
O’Halloran and Codyre both struck penalites, but Wegians were unable to make territorial dominance count against the visitors' flawless defence. Wegians did have one last chance when a stoppage time penalty gave them an attacking lineout near the 22, but a wayward throw meant the chance was gone.
It does not get any easier for the Glenina outfit when they travel north to take on promotion-chasing Belfast Harlequins.
Galwegians XV: R Gaffney; D Kennedy, S Bolton, R Deacy, C O’Shaughnessy; M Codyre, K Langan; S Ryan, C Reilly, D Vergara; E Tarmey, A Abayomi; B McGuinness, K Palamarczuk, K Downey (captain ). Subs: C Kyne, A Paton, P Feeney, A Neary, A Sherlock.
