West Offaly Lions are the champions
WEST Offaly Lions travelled in huge numbers to Creggs RFC last Sunday for a showdown with Creggs in the Connacht J1B League.
Connacht J1B League
Creggs 3
West Offaly Lions 28
This was a vital game for both teams with the winner taking all on the day. Creggs just needed a win to be crowned champions but West Offaly Lions had a much steeper hill to climb as a bonus point win was required on the day.
From the kick off, both teams showed tremendous spirit. The first shot at the post came in the form of a penalty kick for Creggs; this was missed by kicker Jarleth Hughes in the opening minutes of the game.
However, ten minutes later the Lions had a chance to put points on the board also with a penalty kick which was missed by Donal Corbett.
With both teams nerves settling at this stage the game intensified to a pace which was to last right to the final whistle. The Lions were first to score after some fine moves which ended in a pass from team captain Ronan Guinan to Donal Corbett.
Corbett placed a great kick to the Creggs end line for winger Jeffery Cuskelly to touchdown. Corbett duly converted. With the first half coming to a close Creggs took the opportunity to put three points on the board with a penalty kick.
West Offaly Lions lost their very influential second row player Anthony Quinn who was sin binned for what appeared to be a very harsh decision for excessive rucking. This brought the half time score to 7-3 in favour of the Lions.
From the restart the fourteen man Lions team were under pressure as Creggs upped the pace of their game but this young lions team held firm. With Anthony Quinn returning to the field, the Lions proceeded to put Creggs under immense pressure ending with a great try by George Mooney converted by Donal Corbett.
The Lions struck again for their third converted try by Donal Corbett after some brilliant passes from Paul Deely and Brian Gleeson. Two substitutions were to follow for the Lions, Conor Galvin for Colm Malone and Stephen Cornally for Richie Clancy.
Most of the remaining fifteen minutes of the game was played on the Lions line, but for some ferocious defending by the Lions Creggs seemed destined to score on several occasions. This was not to be Creggs day. Once again the Lions were unfortunate to loose prop Tomas Bennett who was sinned binned with 4 minutes left.
In one final effort, centre Tom Gilligan ripped the ball from a Creggs player. He then passed to Corbett who kicked the ball forward ending in a maul ten metres from the Creggs posts.
Anthony Quinn with the ball in his hands made a powerful drive to the line to score West Offaly Lions bonus point try to crown them league champions. Corbett drop kicked the conversion on the final whistle leaving the score 28-3.
This was the Lions best team performance throughout this league campaign. The J1B Cup was presented to an inspiring captain of two years Ronan Guinan by Connacht competitions secretary Robert Laeff.
Meanwhile, WOL's mini rugby sides also travelled to Creggs on Sunday. The U-8's, U-10's and U-12's had a fine day out with two drawn games at U-8 and U-12 and a win for the U-10's, two trys to one. Mini rugby continues on Sunday, March 14 in the Ferbane Vocational Field at 11.30am.
Congratulations to the Lions U-13's who won the quarter final of the Connacht U-13's Cup. They had a narrow victory over Castlebar in Castlebar last Sunday. Their next game is away to Ballinasloe in the Cup semi-final.
Email to a friend
Print this page
Looking for...
Featured advertisers
Jobs
Search for a job
Weather for Tullamore
Saturday 04 February 2012
Today
Heavy snow
Temperature: -3 C to 0 C
Wind Speed: 18 mph
Wind direction: South
Tomorrow
Sunny spells
Temperature: 2 C to 5 C
Wind Speed: 16 mph
Wind direction: West
