Late try denies Newbridge College Juniors semi final spot
But all not lost as draw ensures a second bite of the cherry
Newbridge College 8
St Gerard’s, Bray 8
Daire Walsh
BILLY O’Reilly was the saviour of St Gerard’s of Bray in Templeville Road last Wednesday afternoon, as his dramatic try deep into second-half stoppage time ensured that the Wicklow school and Newbridge College will have to meet again to determine which of the two teams will progress to the semi-final stage of the Powerade Leinster Junior Cup.
Having lost out agonisingly to St Michael’s College in last year’s decider, Newbridge College are looking to go one better this year, and they signalled their intent by comprehensively defeating Wesley College 48-0 in their opening round tie. Although this was much tighter affair at St Mary’s College RFC, Newbridge looked like they had done enough to secure a last-four slot, until the telling contribution of O’Reilly ensured that Gerard’s will get a second bite at the cherry.
The south Kildare school had started the game in positive fashion, and it came as no surprise when early pressure led to a penalty in a kickable position on the right-wing with just three minutes gone on the clock. Newbridge No. 11 Gavin Burke (who is a mainstay from last year’s team), made no mistake with his attempt at goal, as his side developed a promising early platform on which to build.
Gerard’s were presented with the opportunity to restore parity to the contest just five minutes later, but although scrum-half Tom Foley’s place-kick was well-struck, it drifted narrowly past the posts from a distance of 35 metres.
Newbridge continued to press forward on the front-foot as the half moved on, and a terrific break by Burke went close to yielding a try 16 minutes in. On this occasion, however, and throughout the opening period, the Gerard’s defence were proving to be extremely difficult to break down.
Newbridge enjoyed the vast majority of possession right up until the break, but they weren’t able to add to their scoring tally, and thanks to a stoppage time three-pointer from full-back Ben Kealy, Gerard’s had moved on to level terms (3-3) during the interval stage.
Newbridge hooker Daniel Murphy was sent to the sin-bin in the build-up to Kealy’s equaliser, and despite returning to the field three minutes after the resumption, they soon found themselves reduced to 14 men once more when referee Arthur Lynch issued a yellow card to out-half Tom Berney after 41 minutes.
This presented Kealy with the chance to edge the Bray school into the ascendancy, but he was off-target this time, and Newbridge punished this missed opportunity ten minutes into the half when Burke drove over for an unconverted try at the end of a thrilling individual run down the left-hand side.
For a long time, this looked like it was going to be enough to secure Newbridge’s passage into the next phase of the competition, as even though Gerard’s were piling on the pressure in the closing moments, their opponents appeared to be dealing with their attacks quite effectively.
The persistence of the boys from the Garden County eventually paid off, though, as influential Number 8 O’Reilly found a way through in the right-corner 73 minutes into the action.
In a dramatic finale to an absorbing encounter, Kealy’s subsequent conversion gave Bray the chance to seal a triumph with the very last kick of the contest, but despite being offered two attempts at slotting his kick between the posts (Newbridge had charged too early for his first effort), he ultimately came up short, much to the relief of the Newbridge faithful, who will be hoping that they can get the job done when the two teams meet again in the same venue on Wednesday.
NEWBRIDGE COLLEGE: Ruairi Cleary; Niall Wyer, Johnny Deane, David Murphy, Gavin Burke; Tom Berney, Timmy Murphy; Jordan Duggan, Daniel Murphy, Tom O’Neill; Mike Joyce, Geoff Flanagan; Thomas Flynn, Colm Stapleton, Dylan Walker.
Replacements: David Breen for Flynn (35+2-38), Kevin Kyne for Wyer (57).
ST GERARD’S, BRAY: Ben Kealy; Matthew Dalton, Daniel Hodgins, Conor O’Farrell, Brendan Ho; Matthew O’Brien, Tom Foley; Ryan Buckley, Daniel Power, Shane Gallagher; Liam Keaney, Billy Behan; Andrew Courtney, Harry Happonen, Billy O’Reilly.
Replacements: Sam Kenny for Happonen (19), Lorcan Lalor for Dalton (58).
REFEREE: Arthur Lynch (LRR).