Junior Cup
Clongowes Wood College bow out against a determined Belvedere
BELVEDERE COLLEGE……………………………………………… 29
CLONGOWES WOOD COLLEGE………………………………. 03
By DAIRE WALSH
Clongowes Wood College’s 2014 Junior Cup campaign came to an abrupt halt at Donnybrook last Wednesday afternoon.
A rampant Belvedere College crossed the whitewash on no less than five occasions in a comprehensive quarter-final triumph.
This was revenge of sorts for the Great Denmark Street school, who had suffered a 26-14 reversal to the Clane men on February 9th at the same phase of the senior grade.
However, despite what the final scoreline might suggest, it wasn’t always plain sailing for Belvedere, and following some good work by the Clongowes pack, out-half Tom Monaghan was on hand to give the five-time champions the lead courtesy of a 13th minute penalty.
It didn’t take Belvedere long to settle into their groove, though.
Just five minutes after Monaghan’s opener, they crossed the Clongowes line for the very first time through centre Cian Walsh.
David Hawkshaw hit the upright from the conversion that followed this score.
However, he made no mistake with the bonus kick to his own try at the very end of the first half.
This provided an impressive Belvedere with a 12-3 platform at the start of the second period.
Any chance that Clongowes had of forging a dramatic fightback effectively vanished six minutes after the restart, when right-wing Mark Donnelly touched down at the end of a fine move across the opposition line.
Belvedere’s advantage was further embellished by five-pointers from scrum-half Hugh O’Sullivan (who ran through largely unopposed) and the imposing Donnelly in the 39th and 48th minutes respectively.
Although Clongowes did manage to threaten their north Dublin counterparts inside the final moments with good surging runs by Monaghan and captain Sean McCrohan, it was too little too late and they were unable to salvage a consolation score from this tie.
BELVEDERE COLLEGE: Rory Clarke; Mark Donnelly, Cian Walsh, Paddy Smith, Dylan Corrigan-Forbes; David Hawkshaw, Hugh O’Sullivan; Sam Osborne, Grellan Murray, Jake Robinson; Darragh Ring, Darragh McKenna; Ruadhan Byron, Conor Byrne, Max Kearney.
Replacements: P Maher for Walsh (37), A Grennel for Osborne (49), J Doorly for Ring (49), D Lacey for O’Sullivan (51), D Hill for Byron (55), C Doran for Smith (56).
CLONGOWES WOOD COLLEGE: Connell Kennelly; David Murtagh, Reinis Lemess, Sean McCrohan, Daniel Fitzpatrick; Tom Monaghan, Joe Murphy; Sean Butler, Dan Sheehan, Hugo Murray; Patrick Celebi, Liam El-Sibai; Sean Phelan, Sean McMahon, Matthew Martin.
Replacements: Cillian O’Neill for Murray (half-time), Ralph Fenelon for Fitzpatrick (38), Lorcan Barrett-Gomez for Phelan (39), Arthur Odlam for Murphy (49), Ben Messayeh for Murphy (49).
Referee: Helen O’Reilly (LRR).