Arklow dig deep to salvage a draw as Jones strikes late
Arklow snatched a draw late on when they hosted Wexford last Sunday in the Leinster league.
The home team had a score to settle after being beaten by the Wexford men last season.
The visitors were the first to score though, crossing in the corner and adding the conversion.
Arklow responded by lifting their game and after several phases of pressure, Paddy Phelan broke the line and scored. He converted his own try to level the score at 7-7.
Wexford started stronger in the second half and with an unconverted try led 12-7. Arklow rallied once more and after some great work by the pack, the ball was spun wide and Richard Murphy dotted down under the posts. Phelan converted to give his side a 14-12 lead.
Arklow upped the pace and Wexford soon gave away a penalty which Phelan kicked to extend the lead to five points.
Wexford then had a strong period and when Arklow had a player sin-binned, the visitors took advantage and scored out wide with an overlap. The difficult conversion was made and with a penalty shortly afterwards, Wexford now led 22-17.
Sustained
With minutes remaining, Arklow had to score a try to get anything from this game. This Arklow side does not like the idea of being beaten and now put together their best period of sustained pressure.
The ball was moved left and Murphy was stopped with a great tackle metres short of the line. The ball was then recycled and switched to the right wing where scrum-half Gavin Byrne made a great break towards the corner before off-loading to Joe Jones, who finished off the try.
The tricky conversion was unfortunately missed but Arklow did well to rescue the draw in a very tight encounter. Arklow travel to Roscrea next Sunday in what could prove to be a title decider.
Arklow - Paddy Brennan, Pete Lynch, Dermot Laide, Danny Clear, Jack Joyce, Aidan Louth, Ryan Smart, Peter Dempsey, Gavin Byrne, Dean McCormack, Eddie Tobin, Richard Murphy, Ross Vigors, Willie Dillon, Paddy Phelan, Shane Macallister, Luke Bulmer, JP Phillips.