St Mary’s and Wesley progress to Leinster Schools Senior Cup quarter-finals
St Mary’s College and Wesley College progressed to the quarter-final stage of the Leinster Schools Senior Cup courtesy of their respective opening round triumphs against CUS and Cistercian College Roscrea on Thursday afternoon.
It is all of 20 years since Mary’s won the last of their five titles at this grade, when future Ireland captain Johnny Sexton was pulling the strings for them. They initially looked in difficulty during their clash with CUS at Lakelands Park as Matthew Clarke and Harry Lynch both crossed over to hand their Leeson Street counterparts a 14-5 cushion in the 19th-minute.
However, Mary’s rallied with converted scores from Andrew Sparrow and Tom McEniff to lead 20-14 at the interval before powerful centre Evan Moynihan dotted down twice in the space of four minutes on the resumption to effectively place the outcome beyond doubt.
Gavin Mulvihill and Aaron O’Brien also added five-pointers in the closing minutes – either side of Rian Treacy’s consolation for CUS – to propel St Mary’s towards a convincing 46-24 win.
Hailing from the Offaly-Tipperary border, CC Roscrea claimed a breakthrough Leinster Schools Senior Cup crown in 2015. It has been a struggle for them in recent years, however, and their latest campaign ended in a 30-10 reversal to Wesley at Energia Park in Donnybrook.
The south Dublin outfit came storming out of the blocks in this game with tries from Aran Lowry and Kameron Moran inside the opening 20 minutes. Roscrea eventually opened their account through Ihechi Oji’s clinical finish, but were still 10 points adrift (15-5) at half-time.
They gave themselves a fighting chance of success when Ronan Lydon touched down at the end of a sustained period of attacking pressure on 48 minutes. Yet Wesley were not to be denied and the Ballinteer-based side eased over the line with late scoring contributions from Oran Handley and Jamie Fish.