O’Shea top of the class as St Mary’s taught a lesson
Leinster Schools Senior Cup
Daire Walsh
Donnybrook
Clongowes Wood College 24
St Mary’s College 14
Ben O’Shea finished with an impressive tally of 14 points at Donnybrook yesterday, when eight-time champions Clongowes Wood College defeated St Mary’s College in a Leinster Schools’ Senior Cup quarter-final.
Clongowes narrowly avoided a shock exit to St Fintan’s HS, Sutton in the opening round, but they played with a new lease of life in this last-eight encounter. Just eight minutes into the action, they developed a strong maul inside the Mary’s ’22’, and flanker David Jeffares eventually drove over for a deadlock-breaking try.
This score was followed by a clinical O’Shea conversion, and Clongowes subsequently doubled their advantage in the 26th-minute. Strong carries by Matthew Martin and McCrohan brought the Clane school back into the opposition half, and after finishing off a fine attacking move on the left flank, O’Shea also added the bonuses to give his a side a 14-0 interval lead.
Clongowes increased the gap seven minutes into the second period, when the outstanding Martin squeezed over the opposition line, before Mary’s forced their way into the reckoning. Centre Myles Carey discovered a gap in the Clongowes defence to break over for a converted score, and this was supplemented by another try from full-back Eamonn Byrne at the end of the third quarter.
This set-up a nerve-wracking conclusion, but after holding firm under intense pressure from the south Dubliners, Clongowes finally sealed their win with a 67th-minute O’Shea penalty.
Scorers for Clongowes Wood College: B O’Shea try, pen, 3 cons, D Jeffares, M Martin try each.
Scorers for St Mary’s College: M Carey, E Byrne try each, R Shields 2 cons.
CLONGOWES WOOD COLLEGE: J Gilheany, R Lemess, T O’Brien, B O’Shea, J Maher; T Monaghan, J Murphy; J Timmins, D Sheehan, A Odlum; S Phelan, M Martin; D Jeffares, A Ryan, S McCrohan.
Replacements: P Celebi for Phelan (51), J Carroll for O’Brien, T Coghlan for Jeffares (both 52), C Kennelly for Maher (70).
ST MARY’S COLLEGE: E Byrne; H Conway, C Kennedy, M Carey, R Shields; T Murray, D McDonagh; N McEniff, R Bergin, J Coolican; C McElearney, L Corcoran; S Heeran, H McSweeney, R Watters.
Replacements: A Dix for Conway (h-t), I Wickham for Corcoran, N Hurley for Heeran, A McEvoy for McDonagh (all 43), C O’Meara for Coolican (46), B MacMahon for Shields (67),
Referee: C Hogan (LRR).