Duggan delivers as Michael’s shake off St Mary’s challenge
Leinster Senior Cup
by Daire Walsh
Dave Duggan came to the rescue of St Michael’s College in Donnybrook yesterday, as the pre-competition favourites survived a major scare before eventually progressing to the quarter-finals of the Leinster Schools Senior Cup with a 19-14 win over St Mary’s.
Expectations are high this year for the Ailesbury Road outfit (under the stewardship of Brian O’Meara), but just seven minutes into their first round fixture against St Mary’s, their try-line was breached.
David Matthews (son of former Ireland captain Philip) crossed over after executing an excellent interception, and with Derry O’Connor on hand to secure the bonuses, Mary’s showed that they were eager to cause an upset.
A converted James Ryan try appeared to have settled St Michael’s nerves, however, and when hooker Gavin Barrett registered a try with 19 minutes gone on the clock, they moved into the ascendancy.
Mary’s were not prepared to back down just yet, though, and thanks to another converted score, they held a slender 14-12 buffer at the midway point.
In a tension-filled second half, St Mary’s College performed heroically in a bid to seal their place in the last-eight, but courtesy of Duggan’s 67th minute try – converted by replacement Harry Byrne – Michael’s ultimately edged a compelling battle.
Cistercian College Roscrea and Newbridge College had far more comprehensive triumphs in their opening day outings with Wesley College and Kilkenny College respectively.
Roscrea beat Wesley 26-0. Roscrea’s encounter in Naas RFC was tightly-contested in the first period, when a penalty by Tim Foley was all that separated the teams during the interval.
Foley (who is an Ireland Schoolboys Under-18 International) is one of the key performers on this Roscrea team, and he created significant daylight in the contest when he converted his own try 12 minutes after the restart.
He subsequently added three successful place-kicks to his already impressive tally, and courtesy of a second touch down from Fineen Wycherley, the Tipperary-based school cruised towards a 26-0 win.
This was Roscrea’s first competitive tie since narrowly losing the Leinster Senior League Division 1A decider in December to Newbridge, who sent out their own signal intent in County Carlow FC with a 57-10 win over Kilkenny College. Tries by Jimmy O’Brien (two) and Colm Doyle, along with a Mark Delaney conversion saw Newbridge lead 17-3 at the break. A brace of Colm Stapleton touchdowns after the break helped put the outcome beyond doubt. Kilkenny did their best to stem the Newbridge tide, and although they eventually broke over for a hard-earned score, Newbridge ended the play with nine tries to their name – with efforts from Delaney, Jake Howlett and hooker Connor Johnson.