By Daire Walsh

KILDARE Town Community School produced the goods at Energia Park last Thursday afternoon to secure the Leinster Schools Senior Development Shield at the expense of county rivals Patricians Newbridge.

In arrears by six points during the early exchanges, Kildare Town subsequently took control of the game to lead by the bare minimum at the interval. Their lead was increased when Callum Dooley touched down after the resumption and despite finding themselves reduced to 13 players in the latter stages of the contest, they held firm to finish with 10 points to spare over Patricians.

Although this game took place on the back pitch at the Donnybrook venue – due to the fact that four schools finals were held there throughout the day – the pristine all-weather surface meant that both teams had the platform to impose their style of rugby on the opposition.

Following an initially scrappy opening, Joshua O’Keefe offered Patricians some attacking momentum with a couple of powerful carries. He then found himself stepping up to the kicking tee in the sixth-minute and he comfortably split the posts from Kildare Town’s 22-metre line.

O’Keefe doubled his side’s cushion with a trickier effort three minutes later, but there was just 12 minutes gone on the clock when injury forced the fly-half out of the play. Whereas this was a significant set-back for Patricians, Kildare Town – having taken some time to settle into their stride – grew in confidence as the play progressed.

Hooker Oisin Carroll was held up by the determined Patricians defence after linking up with Dooley from a neat line-out move and even though they appeared destined to finally concede a try, tighthead Adam Barry superbly denied Kildare Town their maiden score of the day on 22 minutes.

This only provided Patricians with a temporary respite, however, as Kildare Town full-back Adam Quinn spotted space inside the opposing ’22’ and proceeded to sprint over on the left-flank.

This five-pointer was supplemented by an outstanding conversion from scrum-half Ryan Murphy and after Tom Joyce – standing in for his half-back partner O’Keefe – pulled a long-distance penalty short of the target, Kildare Town brought a slender 7-6 advantage into the break.

The tie was still delicately poised when the action resumed, but Patricians were now struggling to make headway in the opposition half of the pitch. Kildare Town, on the other hand, were continuing to take the game to their Newbridge counterparts and were duly rewarded on 43 minutes.

Off an intricate attacking scrum move, the aforementioned Dooley squeezed over in the right-corner for a try that was followed by another sublime Murphy bonus strike. Kildare Town were now in pole position to take the spoils and had it not been for the Patricians rearguard forcing a series of turnovers, they may well have moved into an unassailable buffer.

Inside the final-quarter, Patricians started to see more of the ball and with Kildare Town having players sent to the sin-bin in the 61st and 62nd minutes, it looked like the game might yet be there for them.

Daniel Gill made a strong impact off the bench and his try on 64 minutes brought fresh life to their challenge. Even though he couldn’t add the bonuses to his own score, Patricians’ deficit now stood at an eminently manageable three points.

Yet the Kildare Town players never allowed panic to seep into their play and openside flanker Jamie Wall pounced for a try on the left-flank moments after Gill’s intervention. The impressive Murphy once again had the range from the touchline as Kildare Town CS ultimately claimed the Shield at the end of an intriguing all-Lilywhites affair.

KILDARE TOWN CS: Adam Quinn; Calum Murphy, Tadhg Donlon, Thomas Oliver Hanlon, Tomas Gilroy; Daniel Halpin, Ryan Murphy; Jack D O’Neill, Oisin Carroll, Jack O’Donoghue; Jake O’Brien, Devon Morris; Alex Downey, Jamie Wall, Callum Dooley.

Replacements: Adam Delaney, Cameron Rogan, Shayne Farrell, Ryan Christie, Aaron Geoghegan, Daniel Cox, David Kellett, Andrei Prilipceanue.

PATRICIAN SS NEWBRIDGE: Geordan Kennedy; Cian Potts, Louis Malone, James Kennedy, Dylan Casey; Joshua O’Keefe, Tom Joyce; Dean O’Connell, Aaron Donnelly, Adam Barry; Daniel Feighan, Dylan Murphy; Ben Crawford, Cillian Phelan, Eoin Carroll.

Replacements: Jamie Egan, Daniel Gill, Jack Fogarty, Tadgh Scanlan, Sam O’Hara, Alex Bell, Tiago Somers.