Metro League Division 5 Final

Lansdowne FC (J3) v Old Wesley (J3)

Friday 20 March 2026

Lansdowne Road

 

Lansdowne 10 – 29 Old Wesley

Not our Night in Attritional Final 

Having lost the equivalent contest in the J2 final, Old Wesley came to HQ with game faces on and though we might have turned things around a couple of times, not even the conspicuous heroism and bravery of a depleted Lansdowne side could ultimately hold them back.

To understand the performance, picture the scene with ten minutes to go. There’s an evening mist over the back pitch and all we can see from the club end is bodies strewn all over the field. It’s like a scene after the Battle of Fort Sumter in the American Civil War. Captain Oran James is carried to the sideline after a massive collision; soon after him, pack leader Luc Van Cauweleart is helped ashore too, his leg being held on only by a sock.  And looking around the pitch, every second Lansdowne man has a bandage on his head. Yet two scores adrift, still they tackled and counterattacked like the very Union depended on it. A proud if not victorious end to the league.

But let's go back to the beginning … the opening quarter was a finely balanced affair with both sides seeking gaps and finding massive hits for their efforts. Our set pieces were excellent, septuagenarian hooker, Luis O’Castro throwing accurate darts to jumpers “Leapy” Luc Vanner and Conor Deane to the cheerful support from the sideline (“mind yourself Dad”!). And our scrums more than held their own, with prop Ruadhan Pitts schooling his opposite number on more than one occasion.  The rugby was fast and loose with the errors you’d expect when everyone is throwing themselves at the game with such passion. One moment a player would make a mistake and the next, he was making a break and gaining 20 meters (no names please - ed.).  But the deadlock was broken when a multi-phased attack on our line, manfully defended for ages, ended with a try in the corner. Their kicker missed the conversion, but the seal was broken now and they were over again three minutes later, the score 0 – 10 as we entered the second quarter.

We try to work our way back up the pitch and but for the ref stopping the game frequently and for long lectures, we might have reached their danger zone sooner.  But when we did, the whistle happy ref gave us a penalty within reach and Oran slotted it over on the half hour mark. 3 – 10. During this phase, winger Jason O’Connor and prop Alan Matthews did Trojan work and were rewarded with important carries, while the midfield centre partnership of Matt Sheehan and David Pasq put in some crunching tackles to delay Wesley’s return to our half. As we approached injury time, our persistence was rewarded with a move that started when full back Harry Fitzgerald counter attacked from their clearance kick. He scorches into their 22 and offloads to David Pasq who pops it up to supporting scrum half Charlie “Highlands” Campbell. Charlie is hit high and late in a tackle deemed by the ref (who is growing on us by now) to have prevented a certain try. Penalty try and a yellow card too. 10 – 10. But credit to Wesley, with the clock firmly in the red, they work their way back into our half and get a penalty which they slotted in the corner. From the ensuing lineout they go over in the corner and go into the break with their lead restored. 10 – 15.

The period after the restart was our best of the night. Real cup final rugby, Oran got the back line moving like a herd of stampeding buffalo, but such enthusiasm sometimes comes at the cost of accuracy and frequently our last pass went to ground, or much to the joy of the large cohort of visiting supporters, directly into Wesley hands. So close on a few occasions, if we had scored at this stage our spirits might have lifted and Wesley’s drooped, but it wasn’t to be. Having absorbed everything we had to throw at them, and back to 15 men, Wesley now resumed their attack and though every Lansdowne player did the club proud, we were a spent force in the closing 15 minutes. Inevitably Wesley got their breakthrough with five minutes on the clock and a converted try. 10 -22

Now our bench was emptied and in spite of the valiant efforts of subs Rory Durand and Jacques Chapeau, and the electric energy of Will Sadlier, we couldn’t regain the upper hand. The final coup de grace came well into injury when Old Wesley crowned a very strong performance with an excellent try under the posts.  10 - 29 Full time.

A brave end to an excellent league campaign, falling just short of the title to the old rivals Old Wesley. Roll on the Moran Cup!