McElwaine’s hat-trick for Terenure piles pain on Roscrea
Leinster Schools Junior Cup
Daire Walsh
It proved to be a disappointing afternoon at Donnybrook Stadium yesterday for Cistercian College Roscrea, who suffered a comprehensive 44-5 reversal at the hands of Terenure College in the opening round of the Leinster Schools Junior Cup.
With Liam Nolan, Conor McElwaine, and Mattie Lynch exerting a strong influence, Terenure were always in control. They entered the interval with a commanding 24-0 lead, and when McElwaine claimed his second try of the contest straight after the restart, the outcome was beyond doubt.
Harry Kenny eventually opened the Roscrea account with a well-worked five-pointer, before McElwaine completed his hat-trick on 47 minutes to propel Terenure towards a comfortable victory.
Yesterday’s curtain-raiser at Donnybrook was a much tighter affair, as Eoin Quinn’s last-minute penalty secured a dramatic 20-19 triumph for CBC Monkstown over Kilkenny College. Jack Reynolds, Adam Moore and Sam Montayne all registered tries for Monkstown, while Keith Tunstead, Greg Edogun and Tom Kavanagh crossed over for the Marble County outfit.
Kilkenny looked set to progress when they led by nine points early of the second half. But with Quinn and Montayne leading the way, Monkstown’s late rally ultimately secured their spot in the quarter-finals.
Meanwhile at Greystones RFC, St Gerard’s, Bray turned around a six-point half-time deficit (5-11) to overcome the challenge of Wesley College.
After an early Gerard’s try was cancelled out by Oisin Halpin, Sean Verdon edged Wesley in front with a brace of successful penalties.
The north Wicklow school were a transformed side on the resumption, though, as Luke Long, Callan O’Reilly and Cormac Long all dotted down to opened up a 14-point gap.
Wesley responded through skipper Chris Gilmer in stoppage-time, but Gerard’s ultimately prevailed with nine points to spare, 25-16.