Juniors also in sparkling form
Newbridge College 14
St Mary’s College 12
Daire Walsh
Newbridge College survived a late St Mary’s surge to book their place in the semi-final of the Leinster Schools Junior Cup after an enthralling encounter at Anglesea Road last Thursday evening.
First-half tries from Jimmy O’Brien and Jake Howlett had put Newbridge in the driving seat heading into the second half, but the Templeogue school came back with avengeance, and the south Kildare men had to be at their very best defensively to come out on top in the dying moments of the contest.
After their impressive opening round victory over Cistercian College Roscrea, Newbridge headed into this tie with plenty of confidence, though Mary’s themselves had a morale boosting triumph over St Gerard’s, Bray on their first day out. Newbridge were the ones who were the quickest out of the blocks on this occasion, though and following plenty of enterprising build-up play, they took the lead thanks to a brilliant individual try by captain and outhalf Jimmy O’Brien ten minutes in.
The dependable Gavin Burke stepped up to the take the subsequent conversion, and his successful kick gave Newbridge an early seven-point cushion. By forcing Mary’s on the back-foot so early on, they were able to ensure that they took command of the game in all the right areas, and though the south Dubliners started to gain some territorial possession as the half moved on, they were finding it extremely difficult to penetrate a compact Newbridge defence.
Indeed, one particular attack at the very end of the half was intercepted by influential Newbridge centre Rob Buckley, who ran enticingly for the corner, before off-loading to O’Brien just before he ran out of room. O’Brien would then create the space for Buckley’s fellow centre, Jake Howlett, who drove over powerfully for his side’s second try. Burke was once again on target with his conversion, meaning that Newbridge took a not inconsiderable 14-0 advantage with them into the second half.
Newbridge were now firmly in control of this tie, and if Mary’s were going to force their way back into the contest they really needed to come up with an immediate response upon the resumption.
Though it took them a few minutes to get their mindset in check after the re-start, this is what they managed to do, as a scrum close to the Newbridge line on 39 minutes was picked up by Mark Fogarty, who put his No. 15, Terry Kennedy, through for a much-needed try.
Kennedy himself stepped up for the conversion, and even though he was unsuccessful on this occasion, it was clear that Mary’s had finally found their footing in the Ballsbridge venue. They would start to press more and more for further scores as the action moved into the final quarter, but the Newbridge rearguard, led by O’Brien, Howlett and full-back Ruairi Cleary, were keeping them at bay whenever questions were being asked of them.
They were powerless to stop left-wing Neil Walsh getting through for a superb individual try with four minutes left, however, and his five-pointer (as well as Kennedy’s successful conversion) meant that the Newbridge margin was now down to two.
By now, Mary’s were really playing to their full potential, and amped up the pressure on Newbridge during the closing stages of the game.
Try as they might, though, they couldn’t muster up the all-important score that would rob their opponents of victory, and Newbridge can now look forward to a penultimate round encounter with St Michael’s College, who were mightily impressive in their demolition of Presentation College Bray in their last-eight showdown.
NEWBRIDGE COLLEGE: Ruairi Cleary; Gavin Burke, Jake Howlett, Rob Buckley, James Healy; Jimmy O’Brien (capt), Mark Delaney; Mike Doyle, Tom O’Neill, Oisin Larkin, Paul Condon, Patrick Morrin, Oisin Kelly, Luke Menton, Ciaran Callan.
Replacements: Nic Pearson-Buffon for Doyle (43), Donal Delahunt for Condon (43).
ST MARY’S COLLEGE: Terry Kennedy; Dan O’Connor, Niall Hughes, David Matthews (capt), Neil Walsh; David Boyle, Mark Fogarty; Michael McCormack, Michael Hoey, David Flood, Gavin Kenny, Niall Curran, Michael Kinneen, Ben Maher, James Farrell.
Replacements: Sean McCahill for O’Connor (55), Dan Galvin for Kinneen (60).
REFEREE: Gary Conway (Leinster Rugby).