Derek Suffern hoping consecutive All-Ireland League victories will give Queen's 'a lot of confidence'
Queen’s moved up to sixth in All-Ireland League Division 1B after recording consecutive wins for the first time this season.
The students beat Old Wesley 19-14 at the Dub in a tense tussle and had to rely on a strong defensive rearguard action in the second half after scoring all their points in the opening 40 minutes.
Queen’s were missing Jack Boal and Charlie Irvine to injury while Scott Wilson, Michael McDonald, Wilhelm De Klerk and Rory Telfer were on Ulster duty.
Coach Derek Suffern was pleased with the character of his side to grind out the four points.
“Two good performances have brought us two good wins before the break so it takes the pressure off from the point of view of climbing up the table a little bit and gets us looking forward to the next block of fixtures after Christmas and starting looking above ourselves a little bit,” he said. “A few boys were called in late and we had a few changes.
"The guys dug in and some guys put in full 80 minute shifts who hadn’t played a lot of rugby in a while...it just shows the spirit and character that is developing in this group of Queen’s players.
“It was very evident in the second half when we were under a bit of heat and they had momentum. We were only five points ahead but we managed to hold on with some really good defence sets.”
Queen’s scored three tries in the first half and while they couldn’t add to their tally, Suffern was satisfied to topple the side sitting third in the league.
“I’m happy we held out,” he added. “We didn’t really get much territory in that second half with the greasy conditions but we defended really well and kept them out of our final third enough in the second half.
“We played well in the first half to get some good scores – we maybe could have picked one of in the second half but that is the way it goes.”
Queen’s have taken nine points from their last two games to pull away from the relegation zone.
“It seems that a lot teams can beat each other in this league and you can see that from the results on Saturday,” said Suffern. “To be up in that middle section of the table is fantastic.
"Hopefully it will give the players a lot of confidence going into the games after Christmas.”
Wesley struck first with Tom O’Callaghan going over for a converted try on 10 minutes.
Prop Jacob Boyd, making his first start of the season, then burrowed over from close range with Jack Murphy converting.
The out-half got the students second which he converted and also added the extras to a sweeping move which centre Fraser Cunningham finished off to give Queen’s a 19-7 interval lead.
A penalty try for Wesley was the only score after the break.
In the top-flight, both Ulster clubs lost as Terenure defeated Ballynahinch 24-3 while City of Armagh went down 35-25 at Clontarf.
Instonians maintained their five-point lead at the top of Division 2A with a 33-21 home win over Banbridge.
Bevan Prinsloo, Glen Faloon, Ruairi O’Farrell, Marty Vorster and David Whitten got the Inst tries while Ballymena lost at Navan.
Dungannon moved up to second in Division 2B with a 31-41 win over Malone at Stevenson Park – Ben McCaughey got three of the home side’s five tries.
Rainey beat Clogher Valley 32-20. In 2C, Belfast Harlequins and Ballyclare shared the spoils at Deramore in a 21-21 draw and Omagh lost 17-3 at home to Tullamore.