Cistercian College, Roscrea will face Gonzaga College in the quarter-finals of the Leinster Schools’ Senior Cup, following their narrow victories over CBC Monkstown and Castleknock College yesterday.

Roscrea started their game with Monkstown at Castle Avenue with six players that featured in last year’s final defeat to Belvedere College, and they took a deserved lead in the 24th-minute.

Impressive centre Adi Donavan raced over after spotting a gap inside the Monkstown ’22’, and this score was followed by a Tadhg Bird conversion. A second try from Finbarr Crowley followed, ensuring Roscrea held a 12-0 cushion at the midway point.

Pieter Swanepoel’s charges looked primed for victory, but Monkstown got their account up and running with a close-range Reynolds place-kick three minutes after the restart.

Roscrea continued to pose an attacking threat as the half wore on, but thanks to another routine three-pointer by the reliable Reynolds, Monkstown cut the deficit to six with 12 minutes remaining.

However, with tighthead prop Michael Milne in outstanding form, Roscrea claimed a hard-earned 12-6 triumph.

They will now face Gonzaga in the last-eight after the Ranelagh school secured a 14-10 win over Castleknock at a rain-soaked Donnybrook.

Eight-time winners Castleknock had opened the scoring with a ninth-minute Cian Egenton penalty, but after Gonzaga gained a foothold from the restart, Sean Galvin crossed over via an excellent James Kenny offload.

Gonzaga enhanced their advantage when Galvin was once again on hand to finish off a fine move, and thanks to Michael O’Kennedy’s second successful conversion, they established a 14-3 interval cushion.

Gonzaga now looked odds-on to progress, but Castleknock eventually reduced the gap at the rain-soaked south Dublin venue.

With Gonzaga’s Ian O’Grady in the sin-bin, Castleknock made their temporary numerical advantage count — as Darragh McNally touched down underneath the posts. A routine Donncha Ryan conversion meant only four points separated the sides, but in spite of their best efforts, Gonzaga ultimately prevailed.

Elsewhere in the quarter-final draw, defending champions Belvedere College were paired with St Michael’s College, while Blackrock College and Clongowes Wood College will play Terenure College and St Mary’s College respectively.

CISTERCIAN COLLEGE ROSCREA:

T Bird; B Hyland, P O’Shea, A Donavan, P Keane; C Kelly (captain), F Crowley; J Wycherley, T Byrne, M Milne; R Lomas, N Moylett; C Walsh, R En-Moony.

Replacements:

J Cahir, L Rigney, D Maher, L Culleton, J Corcoran, L Crowley, B Murphy, J Culleton.

CBC MONKSTOWN:

J Reynolds; C Newman, C Watson, D Forster, L Sweeney; S Power, S O’Hanrahan; M Read, M Theunissen, C Kavanagh; R Ivers, E Vaughan; R Doyle, Z Sattar, E Clarke (captain).

Replacements:

K Kouadri, G Tinney, J Browne, L Hallam, C Byrne, H Shaw, C Tallon, G Mahon.

Leinster Schools’ Senior Cup quarter-finals:

Belvedere College v St Michael’s College; Blackrock College v Terenure College; Cistercian College Roscrea v Gonzaga College; Clongowes Wood College v St Mary’s College.