Blackrock captain hails ‘unbelievable’ display
Leinster Schools Senior Cup final
Blackrock College 50
Gonzaga College 21
Daire Walsh
RDS
Blackrock College captain Gus McCarthy heaped praise upon his team-mates after the south Dublin giants secured their 70th Leinster Schools Senior Cup title at the expense of Gonzaga College in the RDS yesterday afternoon.
Influential hooker McCarthy was amongst the tries in the Ballsbridge venue – they registered seven in total – as ‘Rock convincingly held off the claims of their Ranelagh counterparts.
Although there were some shaky moments early on for his side, McCarthy cut a content figure in the aftermath of the contest.
“It was an unbelievable team performance. All the lads showed up, absolutely superb performances out there.
“We’re absolutely delighted, it’s unbelievably satisfying. All the early mornings, the tough training sessions, it just feels unbelievable,” McCarthy acknowledged to Premier Sports.
“We’ve worked so hard over the last three years as a squad and this year. There has been ups and downs, but we’ve really worked hard and we’re just delighted with that.
“It was an unbelievable game, we’d like to thank Gonzaga for that game. We fought hard and that was it. We’re absolutely delighted.”
Playing in just their second final at this grade – their previous showpiece appearance in 2019 ended in a 28-5 defeat to St Michael’s College – Gonzaga stormed in front when Hugo McLaughlin released Rory Finlay for a fifth-minute try.
McLaughlin superbly dissected uprights off the resulting bonus strike to make it a dream start to the action for his side, but the tables were quickly turned on Declan Fassbender’s men.
‘Rock blindside flanker Liam Molony dotted down under a slew of bodies for a converted 10th-minute score, before Hugh Cooney and Eoghan Walsh crossed over in quick succession at the beginning of the second-quarter.
Justin Vanstone’s charges did suffer a set-back when McCarthy was sin-binned on 26 minutes, however, and in his absence McLaughlin dived over for a try that he converted himself.
This reduced Blackrock’s lead to seven points (21-14) at the interval and consequently presented Gonzaga with a fighting chance.
However, ‘Rock had been restored to their full compliment in the closing minutes of the opening period and reasserted themselves on the resumption with a fourth try courtesy of Andrew Quinn.
After he once again supplied the extras on top of this effort, Quirke contributed his fifth successful kick of the day from a 47th-minute penalty.
Although the signs were becoming increasingly ominous for Gonzaga, right-wing Hugo Neville burst through a gap in the ‘Rock defence to record a magnificent solo try on the stroke of 50 minutes.
This offered the vocal ‘Zaga faithful a glimmer of hope, but Blackrock immediately fired back with a second try from Cooney after he charged Stephen McMahon’s attempted clearance and touched down just before it drifted out of bounds.
While this effectively placed the outcome beyond doubt, McCarthy and his replacement Mikey Yarr both added tries in the dying minutes to leave all of 29 points between the teams in the end.
Scorers for Blackrock College: Tries – H Cooney (2), L Molony, E Walsh, A Quinn, G McCarthy, M Yarr; Cons – Z Quirke (5), C O’Shaughnessy. Pens – Z Quirke.
Scorers for Gonzaga College: Tries – R Finlay, H McLaughlin, H Neville; Cons – H McLaughlin (3).
BLACKROCK COLLEGE: R Moloney; A Quinn, H Cooney, L Kritzinger, E Walsh; Z Quirke, O Coffey; M Holmes, G McCarthy, P McCarthy; T Brigg, C Tonge; L Molony, I Cruise-O’Brien, K Jackson.
Replacements: M Yarr for Brigg (27-33), J Molony for Tonge (h-t), J Angulo for Jackson, T O’Riordan for Holmes, W Fitzgerald for Coffey, M Aschenbrenner for Walsh (all 66), Yarr for G McCarthy, A Andersson for P McCarthy, C O’Shaughnessy for Quirke (all 68).
GONZAGA COLLEGE: H McLaughlin; H Neville, H Goddard, J Browne, R Finlay; S McMahon, M Sullivan; T Hammond, T Cotter, G Morris; T Murphy, L O’Callaghan, N Maguire, G O’ Donnell, P Wilson.
Replacements: T Noone for O’Donnell (42), O Murray for Sullivan (44), L McLaughlin for Cotter (55), O O’Neill for Finlay (59), T Wyley for Murphy, M Tyrrell for O’Callaghan (64), A McVerry for Hammond, A O’Flanagan for Neville (both 65).
Referee: A Cole.