REACTION – NEWBRIDGE COACH DAVE BREW
Brew pleased to see further improvements from Newbridge
By Daire Walsh
ANOTHER Leinster Schools’ Senior Cup semi-final awaits for Newbridge College, following their eight-point (13-5) victory against St Andrew’s College in Donnybrook last Tuesday.
The foundations for Newbridge’s win were established during the opening half, when second-row pair Brian Larkin and Mike Joyce both crossed the Andrew’s line. The Booterstown school did give themselves a fighting chance with a second-half try from Nick Hibberd, but three points by Colm Doyle guaranteed Newbridge’s safe passage to the last-four.
Speaking in the direct aftermath of the contest, Newbridge coach Dave Brew was thrilled with his side’s win, though he did acknowledge that they were somewhat fortunate to be ten points to the good early on.
“Yeah, delighted [with the win]. To be in the hat is the main thing I suppose. Quarter-finals are always difficult, I thought Andrew’s played really, really well. So yeah, delighted to be in the hat,” Brew revealed.
“I suppose they were kind of cheap tries from our point of view. It was great to get a ten point lead. I don’t think we really deserved it at the time, but you’ll take any lead in a quarter-final. Very happy with that, but I suppose we lulled a bit after, which didn’t really help our process.”
However, having previously worked in the school, Brew has the height of respect for the ever-improving Andrew’s, and is pleased to see them operating at the top level of schools rugby once again.
“I was actually just in with them there and I actually worked in Andrew’s for a few months a long, long time ago.
It was great, I’d just like to see them back in the cup. They did really, really well last year and they’re after backing it up again. Loads of respect for them, I think they really put their school back on the map and I wish them well.”
It was during the third-quarter that Andrew’s really showed their quality, and Brew felt that a greater impact at the breakdown was essential for Newbridge as they assumed control of the proceedings towards the end of the tie.
“We felt the biggest thing there was the breakdown. Someone needed to win it. We felt the first half, even though we were leading, we felt they were doing better at the breakdown. They were fighting better, they were drawing penalties out of us, they were winning turnovers.”
“We just felt at half-time that was the big message on. We have to win the fight. If you don’t win a fight in a rugby match it doesn’t matter. We really concentrated on that area, and I think we got more than parity then in the last 20 minutes. I think that’s where the penalties came from then for us.”
When you take their excellent league success into consideration, it has been a very eventful season for Newbridge thus far. Yet, Brew and his coaching staff can still identify areas where improvement is needed, and although he was speaking before Blackrock’s surprise defeat to Roscrea, they are focusing on the next task at hand rather than the possibility of winning the competition on 17 March.
“Absolutely. We wouldn’t be coaches if we feel we couldn’t improve them. We feel, as a team – I think I said this to you in previous rounds – that we feel they’re getting better every week. We feel at the moment that we were good enough to win a quarter-final.”
“Are we good enough to beat one of those big schools in a final? I don’t know, but will we be good enough in three weeks’ time? Hopefully we will,” Brew added.