West Offaly Lions RFC

An inept first-half performance by West Offaly Lions led to their first league defeat out of nine starts in the league. WOL will now need to collect a bonus point in their last outing against Carrick on Sunday. But they haven"t done this all season so the chances of scoring 4 tries are remote even with a home venue, unless WOL can produce an inspired performance. Discipline as usual was WOL"s greatest opponent and unless players grow up and do what they"re asked then the hopes of promotion will be thrown away. NUIG had a very basic game plan, kick the ball behind WOL and wait for a mistake. Eventually it came with an intercept try and a mix up in defence just before half-time and a soft score after the break. Cue WOL response as they realised too late that if you kick the ball against the wind its going to be returned with interest and they kept the ball in hand and scored a try by Quinn. Unfortunately, this was not converted, and the Lions then stormed the NUIG line, gaining penalties in front of the posts till a knock-on brought the final whistle. Monivea did the double against a weakened development team, despite a Myers try and Flaherty penalty. WOL had countless opportunities to win, but lack of training time together left them wanting U14 match, TBC, next Saturday. Mini training next Sunday at 11.30 in the school field.