Galwegians finally secured their first win of the season when they impressively put bottom-of-the-table Enniscorthy to the sword in a 41-18 seven-try demolition at Crowley Park on Saturday.
Having found some recent scoring form, the Blues went into this game in confident mood, and they took the lead as early as the third minute. From a penalty kick to touch, flanker and Wexford native Ben McGuinness scored the opening try against his boyhood rivals in the left corner.
The conversion was missed and the lead was short-lived. Barely four minutes later the visitors scored from their first attack when imposing centre Nick Doyle finished near the corner with an unconverted try to level the game.
The hosts went back in front with their second try on 17 minutes thanks to a barnstorming run by winger Shayne Bolton from inside his own half. Although hauled down near the line, No 8 Kieran Downey finished off for try number two, Darragh Kennedy converting for a 12-5 lead.
Doyle knocked over a penalty to reduce the margin before the home side took a firm grip on the contest, scoring their third try on 25 minutes. The forwards made the hard yards before the ball was spun wide for Rob Deacy to feed fullback Kennedy who dotted down on the right hand corner.
The conversion was wide, but the Blues continued to pile on the pressure. Doyle was sin-binned for the visitors just before the break, and although McGuinness was held up over the line, the resulting drop-out was countered by Shane Mallon before Bolton again turned provider to Mark Earle, who sliced through for the bonus fourth try - Kennedy’s conversion making it 24-8 at the break.
Any chance of a second-half comeback by the visitors was dealt an early blow when the skipper Downey took a gem of a short-side pass from his impressive scrumhalf Kelvin Langan and scythed through the cover to bag his brace. Kennedy’s conversion put them 23 points clear as both sides made the changes.
However the Wexfordmen kept plugging away and were rewarded with a maul try by hooker Angelo Todisco before they produced another try from a breakout by Doyle with a gut-busting run, reducing the gap to 13 points.
The threat was short-lived. When Andrew Sherlock fly-hacked the ball clear, Mallon took full advantage to gather and dive over near the left, and in the dying moments Mallon completed his brace with another in the left corner.
They now face a Christmas break before resuming action against the same opposition when they make their first trip to Enniscorthy on January 14.
Galwegians: J Winters, C Reilly, M McColgan; M Loughlin, B Guilfoyle; B McGuinness, D Keane, K Downey (capt ); K Langan, J Thompson; S Mallon, R Deacy, M Earle, S Bolton; D Kennedy. Subs: C Joyce, A Abayomi, P Hackett, A Sherlock, H Gavin.
