Lansdowne 0 – 36 Old Wesley

Difficult to extract any positives from the pasting our J2’s took on Sunday at HQ. A strong selection on paper, our team failed to ignite in the first half and allowed themselves to be completely extinguished in the second.

 

For the first half hour, we looked like competitors as possession changed sides regularly. It was surprising that the visitors didn’t use the wind advantage better to keep us in our own half.  Eventually, they broke through our defence for a try with five minutes to go before the break, but there was still a sense of optimism that we could take a one try deficit into the second half and make better use of the wind ourselves.  That optimism was stretched a little when we lost one player to the sin bin and then another with a penalty try on top.  A twelve point gap and two players down didn’t bode well for the second half.

We held our own for the first few minutes of the second half and when our players returned from the sin bin, we could have got back into the game.  But inexplicably, we also failed to take advantage of the wind. Old Wesley couldn’t believe their luck. Their gratitude increased when we lost our shape, energy and apparently all our will to compete.  We conceded not one, two, not even three but four more tries without reply.

Maybe there was one positive.  There is no video of this game.

Match Report: Brian Whelan