It was cold, wet and gloomy at Gibson Park on Saturday afternoon for the meeting of first placed Malone against seventh placed Old Wesley and the conditions set the scene for a game fought in the trenches, between the ’22s’.

Playing with a strong wind and rain behind them Malone couldn’t take advantage of the elements, managing four Rory Campbell penalty goals before the break.

Old Wesley responded through a Rory O’Donovan try which was converted by Rory Stynes who also added a penalty to take the score to  Malone 12 Old Wesley 10 at the break.

Playing with the elements Old Wesley pressed from the start, but were repelled by a stout Malone defence until mid way through the second half when Stynes kicked a penalty goal.

Further pressure resulted in another Stynes penalty goal to leave to leave the result 12 – 16 in favour of the visitors.

MALONE: Rory Campbell; Ben McCaughey, Stewart Moore, Josh Pentland, David McMaster; Callum Smith, Shane Kelly; Peter Cooper, Adam McBurney, Ricky Greenwood, Jonathan Davis, Michael Shiels, Matthew Hadden, Ross Todd (c), Joe Dunleavy.  Replacements: Dan Kerr, Ben Halliday, Josh Davidson, Graham Curtis, Gareth Millar.

OLD WESLEY: Rory Stynes; Tommy O’Callaghan, Bill Corrigan, David Poff, Alan Jeffares; Tom Kiersey, Charlie O’Regan; Ciaran McHugh, Ben Burns, James Burton, JJ O’Dea, Iain McGann (c), Darren Horan, Josh Pim, Mark Rowley. Replacements: Andrew McCrann, Craig Telford, Paul Derham, Josh Miller, James O’Donovan.