Galwegians have a chance to regain some much-needed momentum when they travel to Dublin for Sunday’s AIB Cup third-round clash with UCD.
Having recorded their third successive AIB League defeat in their local derby clash with Buccaneers at Dubarry Park on Saturday, Galwegians need to find their winning form.
UCC are currently sitting midtable in division two - just behind the in-form Corinthians - and this should give Galwegians a real opportunity to advance. However they cannot afford to take anything for granted against a side that has taken their scalp in the past.
Galwegians will have to up their performance levels from those displayed against Buccaneers last Saturday. The defeat sees them drop to seventh in the league - one below Buccaneers and some nine points off the leaders Old Belvedere.
Buccaneers, having dominated the opening quarter, were unable to convert this into points and as Wegians began to exert some pressure, they were rewarded with a try on 26 minutes.
A clean line-out take from Brian McClearn and a charging run by his second row partner Joe Moran created the platform, but when scrum-half Kieran Campbell fed the incoming full-back Mark Butler on the blindside, it created the space for the supporting Tiernan O’Halloran to score in the corner.
Having missed the conversion and producing a succession of unforced errors, Galwegians handed the initiative back to Buccaneers who on the stroke of half-time took a 7 - 5 lead. Winger Paul Harte broke through some poor tackles before supplying fullback JH Potgeiter who dotted down near the corner and converting.
Potgeiter stretched their lead with a well-struck penalty on 44 minutes. And although a Wegian rare foray into opposition territory by substitute back Liam Bibo led to a penalty, which Butler converted, the game was effectively decided when Buccs scored their second try following a sustained attacking period. Substitute winger John O’Brien almost was held up by the scrambling Wegians defence, but from the resulting five-metre scrum Buccs player-coach No 8 Colm Rigney picked and drove through the porous defence to score.
Galwegians: M Butler; T O’Halloran, A Esera, D Clarke ( L Bibo, 50 ), J Cleary; R Shaughnessy, K Campbell (sub: R Dillon, 55 ); J Naughton ( J Stephens, 61 ), C Muldoon, R Loughney; B McClearn; J Moran; L Scahill, I Muldoon (capt. ), A Conboy.
Buccaneers: J Potgeiter; S Stapleton, B Tuohy, A Wynne, P Harte; A Hayman, C O’Loughlin; M Staunton, G Halligan, C Higgins; PBurke, J Tormey; S Burke, C Watters, C Rigney (capt. ).Subs, B Gilligan, A Hughes, G Kelly, AKennedy, J O’Brien.
