AIL: Relief for Sunday's Well after thrilling win over Skerries
Sunday's Well's Shane Keevers in a race for the line with referee Kevin Coffey to score his try. Picture: Eddie O'Hare
SUNDAY'S Well secured victory in a thrilling encounter that went right down to the wire.
This was only the Well's second win of the season and was much needed in the battle against relegation from Division 2C of the Energia AIL approaching the halfway mark.
A magnificent score on the hour mark helped put the Well in a commanding position. After securing a turn-over on the opposing 22, Denis Hurley made a strong burst and played a lovely inside pass to Reece Mintern. He powered forward with his brother Andrew following up before another nicely timed pass out of the tackle allowed scrum-half Fabien Loughrey to fly through. The scrum-half also made his third successful conversion to put his side 24-14 up.
The Well inevitably faced a backlash from a strong Skerries side who are pushing for a promotion play-off spot. The North Dublin scrum was demolishing the Well and setting up a strong platform. The 'Well weathered the storm until under real pressure Josh Featherstone pushed up and put his hand out to block a pass; leading to a yellow card.
Skerries pressed hard inside the 22 and eventually with three minutes remaining replacement back Conor Lennox sneaked over in the corner with Ronan Mulcahy magnificently converting. It set up a thrilling finish as twice Skerries almost created tries from their own, but a final desperate tackle inside their own Twenty-Two caused a Skerries knock-on.
With that came the final whistle much to the joy of the vocal Well support. Early on; Skerries grew into the game; winning a large number of penalties with Mulcahy kicking three to put the visitors 9-3 in front. Mid-way through the half, a high speculative kick by Harry McHenry was gathered by Gary Downey. Skerries had committed to claiming the ball leaving space behind with Keevers raced through to touch-down, with Loughrey converting. The penalty count was going heavily against the Well in the first half, and Skerries finally broke through when Lorcan Jones used the space created by the Well being a man down to touch down in the corner. The start of the second half saw a big turnaround with the Well winning the first six penalties. Persistent pressure eventually saw Evan O'Connell nudge his team back into the lead as he powered over the line before Loughrey's sublime try just about sealed it.
F Loughrey try, pen, 3 cons, S Keevers, E O'Connell tries. L Jones, C Lennox tries, R Mulcahy 3 pens, con.
J Featherstone; S Keevers, J O’Leary, D Hurley, G Downey; H McHenry, F Loughrey; E O'Connell, J McHenry, M McCarthy; J Costello, R Mintern; F MacFhlannchadha, A Mintern, C O'Brien (c).
J Downey, C Axson, D Hanafin, A Lane, R O'Donoghue-Kelleher.
R Mulcahy; L Jones, K McGrath, M Sherlock, R Woods; P O'Loghlen, S Murphy; C Marrey, K Leonard, T O'Donovan; J Waters, R Halligan; S Deering, P Finn, P O'Neill.
T Scuffil, B Murphy, B McKiernan, C Doyle, C Lennox.
K Coffey (IRFU).
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