REACTION
“We were undeserving winners” – Brew
By Daire Walsh
NEWBRIDGE College coach Dave Brew admitted his side were fortunate to come out on top of their Leinster Schools Junior Cup encounter with Temple Carrig at Donnybrook last Wednesday (February 5).
Lucas Berti Newman’s stoppage-time try helped Newbridge to squeeze over the line (11-10), in what proved to be a carbon copy of their Division 1A league triumph in the same ground. Whereas that performance against Gonzaga College was laced with quality throughout, Brew felt their opening round tussle with the Wicklow men fell below the required standard.
“It was dramatic in the league final, but I thought we played pretty well for the league final. I think our first half performance today just didn’t do ourselves any justice at all. To be honest, we were undeserving winners today. That’s the way I’d put it anyway,” Brew remarked after the game.
Trailing 10-0 in the closing stages of the first-half, Mark Young penalties either side of the interval kept Newbridge in contention. This was the cue for a much-improved display in the closing minutes – when they applied the necessary attacking pressure to get themselves in field position.
“We’d no right to be 10-3 at half-time. I think 20-0 would have been a more just score. I thought we played really, really well for the last 20 minutes. We seemed to get on top of them. The penalty count started going our way instead of theirs.
“Did we deserve to score the try? I think in the game as a whole we didn’t deserve to win it, but did we deserve to score for our second half performance? I think we did.”
Next up for Newbridge will be an all-Kildare clash with Clongowes Wood College in the competition’s quarter-finals. Relieved to be in the hat for the draw (which took place two days after their victory over Carrig), Brew acknowledged they will need to be quicker out of the blocks if they are progress any further.
“The one message I gave the lads after the match was ‘if we play a first half like that again, the game will be over at half-time’. We all know that. Hopefully we’ll learn the lesson. I’m trying to figure out and I suppose my objective is to start well the next day. So that we can look at it and go ‘we did ourselves justice’,” Brew added.