Dundalk U18s hosted Wexford in their Leinster campaign opener on Sunday, 6th of October.

The young men from the southeast showed no signs of bus legs, commanding the majority of the possession and territory for the opening ten minutes. 

Meanwhile, Dundalk  seemed sluggish for the opening exchanges. 

Indeed, asleep at a ruck, Dundalk left the ball unattended at the base. Wexford pounced, kicking the ball through with skills which wouldn’t have looked out of place at Oriel Park. 

This lead to a try on the left, leaving the Wexford men 5-0 ahead.

The rain made the ball slippery and Dundalk made a number of errors with some loose passing in contact. 

Another bit of inattentiveness from Dundalk at ruck time let the Wexford nine, Kealan Fahy break down the blindside, with Dylan Rendall saving Dundalk’s blushes, albeit only temporarily as Wexford were able to capitalise after winning a penalty to make it 8-0 to the visitors.

Another Wexford opportunity, this time with from a high tackle, gave them another chance at goal, which they took, leaving them up by 11 points and a man to the good as Dundalk’s ten, Ronan Foley received a yellow for his infringement.

This seemed to galvanise the Dundalk men into action. First, a strong line out maul, made 20 yards into Wexford territory before being dragged down, followed by another strong maul which led to Gerry Dorian dotting down for Dundalk’s first score.

At the returning kickoff, plenty of good handling and footwork, from Don Mullen put Dundalk on the front foot.

With their tails up it wasn’t long before Dundalk dotted down for their first score , with Thomas Heeds coming off his wing to run in from 40 yards. 

Dundalk’s 10, Foley and 12, Donohue combing well to suck in the Wexford defence before putting Thomas Heeds into space. He still had plenty of work to do, turning Wexford’s defence inside and out before scoring under the posts. With the conversion, this left the home side leading by a point, 12-11 going into the break.

After halftime the versatile prop, Joshua McParland, having joined from Carlingford in the preseason, switched from tight head to loose head and showed how versatile he can be, playing either side of the scrum. 

With the second half underway, and with a renewed Dundalk attack, Joshua went over for his second competitive try of the season, with a little help from his pack to get him over the line. 

Dundalk were now 17-11 up. 

Wexford, neither down, nor out, produced  a well worked try going around Dundalk’s narrow defence to put the visitors up 18-17.

Dundalk’s bombsquad of Ryan McCutcheon, Kevin Rafferty, and Joe Liscoe started to make inroads almost immediately. 

The front-row ‘Brain’s Trust’ started with powerful yards from ‘McCutch’ bumping off the brave tacklers from Wexford before scoring close to the posts. 

After the conversion, Dundalk were back on top 24-18.

It wasn’t long before Joe Liscoe, on for McParlan, got his first score of the season. After the conversion, Dundalk were up by 31-18, the scoreboard painting a far more flattering picture.

With strong running from Kai Mahne at wing, coupled with dinky, jiving runs from Harry Valentine as the replacement nine, it was time for Dundalk’s backs to show again what they could do. 

With Milo Veale returning from a long injury layoff, it wasn’t long before he made his impact, running 30 yards through the Wexford defence. He’ll be disappointed in not giving an early pass out to Kai Mahne, but was able to set up the ball for the Dundalk to recycle well. 

Sean Larkin, busy throughout, subbed out for James Meehan to come on. Meehan’s fresh legs were key to securing possession a number of times, seeming to show up just at the right time and right place. 

With some lovely interplay between Ronan Foley, Mark Donohue and Dylan Rendall, it came to Eliot Usoh to score again, this time under the posts to make it 38-18. 

Usoh was commanding in both defence with his tackles and jackals and then in attack, where he deserved to score.

No one would be surprised if we were to see Usoh’s name in the blue of Leinster or green of Ireland if he keeps up this level of performance.

“Wexford are a really strong side and the scoreline probably flattered us a bit”, said Dundalk’s captain, Robin Hamill, “and if we’re to win anything this year, it will take a big squad effort, so it was good to see us finish strongly after going down by 11 points”.

Next Sunday, 13th, Balbriggan visit Dundalk which promises to be another close encounter.