Well must go all out to preserve senior status

SUNDAY’S WELL have one game left to save their season as Cashel come calling to Musgrave Park this afternoon (2.30pm) looking to usurp them from the senior ranks.

It has been a familiar tale of woe that has got the Well into the unwanted position of having to contest a play-off to preserve their 86-year tenure as a senior club.

Injuries to key players along the way haven’t helped, but it has been their inability to finish teams off that has cost them.

That they have picked up six losing bonus points but are the only side in Division Three to fail to collect a try-scoring bonus tells its own story.

The Well’s defence has been relatively good — they have a better ‘points conceded’ column than four of the teams above them— but have been let down by a lack of offensive potency.

They have only been bettered by more than 10 points three times all season, but last weekend’s 17-12 defeat to promotion-chasing Old Wesley summed up their season.

A couple of early mistakes left them 10 points down before they went on to dominate proceedings, scoring two well-worked tries. But they shipped a score six minutes from time to seal their play-off fate.

Nonetheless, if they can carry the form from that outing into today’s clash with a buoyant Cashel outfit, they may yet live to fight for another season.

The ‘Well will need out-half Chris Burnett to bring his kicking boots with him — he left 11 points after him against Old Wesley — and hope top-scoring prop Michael Moynihan has recovered from a knock picked up last time out.

Munster Junior League winners Cashel have plenty of motivation of their own as they look to secure senior status for the first time, having dominated the junior ranks in the province for the past two seasons.