Newbridge nail victory over battling St Mary’s
Newbridge Coll…………………………………. 17
St Mary’s…………………………………………… 10
Newbridge College overcame a strong challenge from St Mary’s College at Ashbourne to book their place in the Leinster Senior Cup semi-final alongside neighbours Clongowes Wood.
An excellent start to the second period had helped Mary’s to level matters (10-10), but a terrific 44th-minute try from Jonathan Phelan ultimately determined the outcome.
Left-wing Joe D’Arcy had opened the scoring for the victors from a 35-metre penalty, but despite playing with a strong wind, Newbridge were facing into a two-point deficit on 23 minutes, when powerful Mary’s No 8 Niall Curran drove over impressively following a well-worked line-out for an unconverted try.
Terrific score
This looked like handing Mary’s the initiative but when D’Arcy superbly applied the bonuses to a terrific score by flanker Matt O’Connor in first-half stoppage-time, Newbridge had secured a five-point interval cushion (10-5).
A magnificent individual try just three minutes after the restart by fullback Terry Kennedy – son of former Irish international Terry Sr – had left the game delicately poised, but with Newbridge’s focus remaining unaffected, towering prop Phelan crossed over six minutes later, via a rolling maul to restore his team’s mid-way lead.
Another successful D’Arcy conversion offered even more breathing space to Aaron Dundon’s charges, and although St Mary’s enjoyed the vast majority of possession for the remainder of the action (which included 11 minutes of injury-time), tireless defensive work ensured Newbridge’s progress.
NEWBRIDGE COLLEGE: N Delahunt; M Delaney, J Howlett, A Shanahan, J D’Arcy; J O’Brien, M Sutton; Conor Doyle, C Johnson, J Phelan; Conor Doyle, T Treacy; C Nugent, M O’Connor, T Brady. Replacements: B Finan for Shanahan (60 mins), R Dromgoole-Maguire for Nugent (60 mins), T O’Neill for Johnson (75 mins), M Stapleton for Delaney (75 mins).
ST MARY’S: T Kennedy; M Oppermann, D Matthews, B Hoey, S McCahill; J Duffy, M Fogarty (J Delaney 78); M Fitzgerald, J Finnegan, C Whelan; C Corcoran, H Diepmann; G Kenny (C Harte-Burke 62), P Fogarty (E Foley 68), N Curran. Replacements: C Harte-Burke for Kenny (62 mins), E Foley for P Fogarty (68 mins), J Delaney for M Fogarty (78 mins).
Referee: G Glennon (LRR).