POST-MATCH REACTION: DAVE BREW
Work to do despite comprehensive victory
By Daire Walsh
WITH nine tries over the course of the contest, Newbridge College had reason to be pleased with their exploits in the Leinster Schools’ Senior Cup opening round in County Carlow FC last Tuesday afternoon.
On paper, Kilkenny College were certainly formidable opponents, and despite being 17-3 in front at half-time, Newbridge knew that they had to be on their toes when the action resumed. However, courtesy of six second period tries, the league champions eventually finished with 47 points to spare.
Newbridge coach Dave Brew was understandably delighted with the outcome of the game, but did point to certain moments in the opening half where Kilkenny did cause them some problems.
“The game was in the balance for the majority of the first-half. Probably up to half-time, but the second-half is a different story I suppose. Once we got a bit of a lead we seemed to open up. Which was pleasing alright,” Brew remarked.
“To be honest, we were quite undisciplined in the first 10 or 15 minutes. We gave up a lot of opportunities, which Kilkenny just didn’t take. I think they missed three shots at goal, so it could have been different in the first 20 minutes.”
“Also, just before half-time, they were prepping our line for about five or six minutes, but we managed to hold them out there. It was probably the changing of the game between the end of the first-half. Then we scored very early in the second-half, and that really killed it off then.”
Considering the low-scoring nature of their league quarter-final meeting (Kilkenny were defeated 6-0 on that occasion), Newbridge would have been understandably pleased to be heading into the break with a 14-point cushion.
Brew and his coaching staff knew that they still had work to do after the restart, though, and were eager to eradicate some of the errors that the team had committed prior to the interval.
“At half-time we would have been quite critical with what we were doing. We thought our discipline was poor, and our execution was poor as well. We tried to focus on trying to do the right things in the right parts of the pitch, and we would have been critical of that in the first-half.”
Following the competition’s quarter-final draw on Friday evening, Newbridge were drawn against St Andrew’s College, who overcame The King’s Hospital on a scoreline of 40-10 on the same day. Like Newbridge, Andrew’s reached the semi-final stage of last year’s competition before bowing out to Clongowes Wood College.
With the exception of St Michael’s College and CBC Monkstown, most of the teams have progressed to the last-eight on the back of comprehensive victories. Brew can see as many cons from gaining a commanding win as he can from a narrow triumph, and knows the mind-set that will be required from his team for the remainder of the 2015 campaign.
“I think you can take the pros out of both situations really. If you win a tight game it’s a good thing, but if you score a lot of tries you shouldn’t be beating yourself up over it either. I’d have taken a 3-0. I’m still happy with the win, but for us the next game is 0-0 regardless of how many points you score in your first round. It’s 0-0 in the quarters.”
“Every team that’s in that last-eight now, there’s two teams that have won two tight games. The rest seem to have been kind of comfortable victories. Everyone that is there has definitely got confidence from their first match. If you want to win the competition you’ve got to beat all-comers,” Brew added.