RUGBY: UBL DIVISION 1A FINAL
Carbery steals the show at Ireland’s showpiece final
By Daire Walsh
ATHY’S Joey Carbery produced a star performance at the Aviva Stadium on Sunday, when Clontarf secured their second Ulster Bank League title in the space of three seasons with a 28-25 final victory over Cork Constitution.
With an impressive personal tally of 13 points for the north Dublin side, Carbery was a worthy recipient of the player-of-the-match award, and the 20-year-old was thrilled to be playing at Irish Rugby HQ for the very first time.
“It was such a good atmosphere. You could feel when we arrived and got off the bus. There was such a buzz around the place, and it just lifted the spirits,” Carbery remarked after the game.
Clontarf led at the mid-way point in the contest by all of 18 points (21-3), and as well as adding conversions to tries from Matt D’Arcy and Tony Ryan, Carbery claimed a magnificent seven-point salvo in the 33rd minute.
He also supplied the bonuses to a Mick McGrath five-pointer after the break, but with Max Abbott, Robert Jermyn and former Cork hurler Darren Sweetnam all crossing the whitewash, Con forced their way back into contention.
While Carbery acknowledged that ‘Tarf had dominated the opening period proceedings, he was happy to admit that the Leesiders had the better of the play in the second-half, and as a result it was a very hard game to call throughout.
“We won the first-half, they won the second-half, and then towards the end we just edged it. There were parts of the game we were better, parts when they were better. It was so close, it was almost hard to call.”
Carbery’s display would have impressed onlooking Irish head coach Joe Schmidt, but although he was pleased to stand out in the All-Ireland League showpiece, he feels that the best way to catch the Kiwi’s eye is to continue developing his game.
“It’s good to stand out in a game, but the most important thing for impressing him I reckon is just keep training. Keep developing over the next few years, and hopefully be in the [shake-up] for opportunities.”
“I feel that I am in some respects, but I feel like I have definitely so much still to learn. Hopefully with the good coaches we have, they can continue to help me develop and improve,” Carbery added.
Meanwhile, Leinster will face Ulster in the Guinness Pro12 semi-finals, after their comprehensive 50-19 triumph against Benetton Treviso at the RDS on Saturday helped them to finish at the summit of the league table.
With Naas’ Jamie Heaslip lining out alongside Jordi Murphy and Rhys Ruddock in the back-row, the Blues led 17-0 at the break thanks to tries from Jonathan Sexton and Richardt Strauss (two).
Leo Cullen’s charges were always in the ascendancy, and even though they conceded three tries after the break, further touchdowns by Murphy, Isa Nacewa, Mick Kearney, Noel Reid and Garry Ringrose ensured that they were comprehensive victors.