Old Wesley 26pts Trinity 28pts.

Trinity Senior 4ths won the O’Connor Cup on Saturday with an emphatic comeback in Merrion Road V Old Wesley.

Steve Sutton’s men fell behind 17-0 and things looked very bleak before half time. Trinity out half John Lane a recent convert from GAA scored the first try when he took a flat ball off his scrum half Niall Mulloy, he spotted space in behind and grubbered in behind the blitzing defence and beat the cover to touch down by the posts. He converted the kick himself. Old Wesley had a kicking machine at out half, and although they did score one try just before half time, they relied on their out half to give them field position. They waited for Trinity to make mistakes in the wet conditions and he duly knocked over the penalties. He did this seven times!

Trinity attacked at every opportunity, they found the going tough early on as Old Wesley were up to the challenge. In the second half though the Donnybrook outfit visibly tired and Trinity kept their attacking shape and played some fabulous rugby with ball in hand. Captain and prop Neil Willoughby had an amazing game carrying ball more and more as the game progressed.

Full back Tom Austin scored the next try from a sweeping back line move and this put Trinity 17-14 up. Wesley kicked a penalty to go 20-14 up and then 23-14 up. Trinity came back with a try and a penalty through John Lane and then scored a penalty to go 24-23 up with minutes to play. From the kick off Old Wesley forced another penalty and took back the lead. The win looked to be out of Trinity’s grasp. Trinity showed incredible team spirit and dug deep for the last time. They took Wesley through multiple phases and the ball was hotly contested at the breakdowns, crucially Wesley got called for hands in the ruck and John Lane kept his composure to slot the extra points. His team mates carried him off the pitch to the huge roar of Trinity players and supporters.

This was a hugely significant win for the Senior 4ths or Met 10 team. With the whole club in Monkstown for a season and a bit, the Junior squads had become a Facebook team with very little training. Since Christmas a big effort from the Club has seen getting numbers back at training. The past two months has seen significant improvement and this brilliant Cup run was just what the Doctor ordered for the Junior club as a whole. Congratulations must go to all the team who have saved their best rugby to last. Special thanks must go to Steve Sutton who has managed/coached the Thirds and Fourths for the past three years and his very able deputy Jeff Blackburn who will be next season’s communications officer.

Hopefully now the Junior squad can move into next season with confidence from this cup win and go on to really enjoy their rugby on the way.

Squad:
1. James Lynch
2. Jack Lynam
3. Neil Willoughby
4. James Clarke
5. Micheal O’Flaherty
6. Jason Delente
7. Eoin MacMahon
8. Dermort O’Flynn
9. Niall Mulloy
10. John Lane
11. Andrew Macmanus
12. Chris Redahan
13. David McGonigle
14. Chip Broderick
15. Tom Austin
16. Mike MacLean
17. John Winton
18. David Garvey
19. Ed Bell
20. Mark O’Maolain
21. Gavin Clarke
22. James Carrol
23. Owen Murphy
24.Cian Mulcahy
25. Miles Carlin
26. Emmet Carey