LEINSTER SENIOR CUP FIRST ROUND
CLONGOWES WOOD COLLEGE…………………………. 43
BELVEDERE COLLEGE………………………………………. 10
By Daire Walsh
Reigning Leinster Senior Cup Champions Clongowes Wood sent out a message of intent at Donnybrook last Thursday afternoon, as they clinically dispatched an overwhelmed Belvedere College in the opening round of this year’s competition. Having emerged victorious in both 2010 and 2011, Clongowes have their sights set on becoming only the third school, after Blackrock College and Belvedere themselves, to achieve three-in-a-row Leinster Senior Cup success and, on the basis of this encounter, they will certainly be the team to beat in 2012.
Clongowes started the game extremely brightly, and took the lead five minutes in when right-wing Conor Mahony expertly converted a 25-metre penalty from a position slightly left of centre. Belvedere were permanently on the back-foot in the opening moments, and though they were coping admirably with the Clane outfit, it looked like only a matter of time before Clongowes got over the Dublin school’s line.
Indeed, this was exactly what happened after nine minutes as prop Daniel O’Byrne showed great strength to ride a number of Belvedere challenges, before powering over the line for the first try of the contest. The subsequent conversion was easily secured by Mahony, to give Clongowes ten points on the board in as many minutes.
Clongowes were really thundering into the game, and a second try followed just a minute later, as a brilliant sweeping move involving Conor Mahony, Max McFarland and Mark Nicholson ended with centre Ciaran O’Hanrahan getting through in the right-corner. Mahony came up just short with his conversion on this occasion, but he was successful with a close-range penalty on 26 minutes, as Clongowes opened up an 18-point gap between them and their Great Denmark Street counterparts.
Belvedere were left completely stunned by the Clongowes display up to this point, but they did have a chance to finally open their account a minute later when full-back Darragh Kennedy stepped up to take a 30-metre penalty to the left of the posts.
His kick on goal drifted past the post, however, and Clongowes made them pay on the half-hour mark, when a break towards the line by No. 10 Nicholson put his half-back partner McQuaid through for his side’s third try of the tie. Mahony’s conversion was kicked over superbly, and even though Kennedy finally opened Belvo’s account with a 32nd minute penalty, a stoppage time place kick from the reliable Mahony meant that Clongowes brought a 28-3 advantage with them into the second period.
With a deficit this large, it looked like there would be no way back for Belvedere. However, they did make a bright start upon the resumption, as Kennedy and centre Cillian O’Sullivan did their level best to try and gain some sort of stranglehold on the proceedings. Yet, just when they were threatening to break into the Clongowes ’22’, they were hit on the break by the North Kildare school, as good work from front-row pair Edward Byrne and Bryan Byrne set-up scrum-half McQuaid for his second try of the game on 43 minutes.
This score served to deflate the Belvedere’s spirits even further, and Mahony brought his tally up to 16 six minutes later with a well-struck penalty, increasing the Clongowes cushion to an incredible 33 points with just over 20 minutes remaining.
It was at this point that the Clongowes coaching staff, headed up by Noel McNamara, opted to introduce a number of players from their replacement bench, ensuring that their entire squad is fresh for the tough tests that lie ahead. It failed to disrupt their momentum in this game, though, as another try followed on 58 minutes from industrious flanker Stephen Kealan, converted once again by Mahony.
Heading into the final ten minutes, all that was left for Clongowes to do was close out the game, and the most noteworthy incident during this spell came when replacement Cian O’Donoghue got through for a try in the 66th minute, only for the play to be brought back, as hooker Bryan Byrne had failed to leave when David Garty had been introduced as a double replacement with Robert Collins (who came on for impressive prop Edward Byrne).
It matter little in the end, however, because even though Fearghal Sullivan got in for a late converted try for Belvedere, Clongowes had more than enough points on the board to comfortably progress to a second round encounter with Castleknock College in a couple of weeks time.
Having impressed against St Mary’s College in their first round fixture, Castleknock will be no pushovers, but with four of last year’s Senior Cup winning side still remaining (Mahony, McQuaid, Edward Byrne and Bryan Byrne), as well as four of the replacements from that day against Cistercian College Roscrea (McFarland, O’Byrne, Peadar Timmons and Sebastian Fromm), Clongowes will no doubt head into their encounter with the Dublin north-west brigade fully confident of coming out on top.
CLONGOWES WOOD COLLEGE: Niall Rhatigan; Conor Mahony, Ciaran O’Hanrahan, Sebastian Fromm, Max McFarland; Mark Nicholson, Conor McQuaid; Edward Byrne, Bryan Byrne, Daniel O’Byrne, Jack Paul, Robert Daly, John Wallace, Stephen Kealan, Peadar Timmons.
Replacements: James Sullivan for McQuaid (50), Garvan McVerry for Nicholson (50), Sean Mulholland for Timmons (55), Cian O’Donoghue for McFarland (58), Dylan Donnellan for Wallace (61), Robert Collins for E Byrne (65), David Garty for B Byrne (65).
BELVEDERE COLLEGE: Darragh Kennedy; Neil Hubbard, Cillian O’Sullivan, Fearghal Sullivan, Andy Larkin; Sean Baird, Cormac O’Leary; Thomas O’Hara, Garbhan Doyle, Eoin Lysaght, Sam Gaine, Dan Fernee, Ian Guiran, Tom Gibbons, Ross Mullen.
Replacements: Mark Kelly for Baird (h-t), Ivan Soroka for Doyle (40), Stephen McDonnell for O’Hara (40), Eamon Heneghan for Guiran (53), Evan O’Shea for Mullen (54), Owen Waldron for Gaine (66).
REFEREE: Eanna O’Dowd (Leinster Branch).