Galwegians suffered a serious dent to their hopes of avoiding relegation when losing to Old Belvedere by 32-24 in Saturday's Ulster Bank League division 1A clash at Crowley Park
The home side had looked in control for much of this contest, but were punished for lapses in concentration by their opponents for whom former Connacht and Corinthian, Danny Riordan, played a leading role.
Tthe Blues took the lead on seven minutes when a break by John Cleary split the Belvo defence and centre Api Phewhairangi finished in the corner, with outhalf Shane O’Leary converting.
Phewhairangi looked like repeating his first try, but a forward pass was correctly called by referee Frank Murphy, and the visitors opened their account in the 23rd minute when fullback Riordan collected a loose clearance, chipped deftly over the cover and won the race for a superb individual score.
There was a large element of fortune in Belvo’s aecond try when hooker Ed Rossiter latched onto a lucky bounce to dive over in the corner,before captain Jonathan Slattery added a third. However Wegians reducef the arrears to 17-10 at the break with a Brian Murphy drop goal.
Within four minutes of the restart Belvedere had bagged their bonus point, but Galwegians replied through Cormac Brennan with O’Leary reducing the arrears to 22-17.
However the turning point came when referee Murphy overruled his assistant.to deny scrumhalf Barry Leea try, and Belvedere struck for another two from Wynne, band Jack Kelly /The Blues never gave up and were rewarded with a Jason East try, which O’Leary converted. But in spurning a kick at goal for a bonus point, they were unable to add to their tally.
Galwegians XV: Ciaran Gaffney; John Cleary; Api Phewhairangi, Brian Murphy, Cormac Brennan; Shane O’Leary, Barry Lee; Ja Naughton (captain ), Jack Dinneen, Jason East; Marty Cummins, Dave Nolan; Marc Kelly, Josh Pim, Anthony Ryan. Subs: Matthew Burke, Patrick Curran, Matthew Towey, Aidan Moynihan, Adam Leavy.
