The Boston Irish Wolfhounds made a big statement as they edged an up-and-coming South Shore Anchors club 25-20 to move to 2-0 in the New England DI club league.

South Shore had looked solid in defeating Mystic River last week and dropped to 1-1.

“As a founding member of the club, I am really proud to see how they’ve progressed,” said Wolfhounds’ Director of Rugby David Gonzalez. “To take a final four team to within five points is impressive.”

“It was a really tough game,” added Wolfhounds DI coach Fergal Hehir. “South Shore came to win and we were just holding on at the end. Our forwards got a lot of work done and were the difference for us.”

Two mauls from lineouts led to tries for the Irish Wolfhounds in the second half, carrying the club to victory. Hehir singled out Ilya Wortman and Nick Pineda, both young locks, as standouts on the day.

Meanwhile, elsewhere in New England, Mystic River defeated Amoskeag 31-14 (score unconfirmed) to improve to 1-1. Coach Nick Murphy said co-coach Jake Sprague – the ex Eagle prop who had to stop playing due to illness – did yeoman work with the Mystic forwards this past week and it paid dividends.

“We have a very young team and like a lot of clubs in New England we are rebuilding, but this was an improved performance,” said Murphy.

Among the youngsters, hooker Chris Laughlin played especially well, and Mystic got a boost from the return of Chris Tofte in the backline.

“Overall, we were better and we’re happy to get the win and the bonus point,” said Murphy. “But we have to be fitter and we’ve still got a lot of work to do.”

Also winners on the day were New Haven, who got by Hartford 22-19.