Impressive Trinity see off UCC fightback to retain title
All-Ireland U20 (Fraser McMullen) Cup final
Dublin University 41
UCC 24
Daire Walsh
Forenaughts
Dublin University (Trinity) retained their All-Ireland U20 Fraser McMullen Cup title with an impressive performance at Naas RFC on Saturday evening.
Trinity’s James Moriarty and Eoin Monahan traded early penalties before UCC were rocked when prop Conor Burke was sent to the sin-bin.
In his absence, Tony Smeeth’s side laid the foundations for victory with unanswered tries from Louis O’Reilly and Paddy Opperman.
The impressive O’Reilly also crossed over in the closing stages of the half to give Trinity a commanding 24-3 interval lead. And things went from bad to worse for UCC on the restart as Opperman touch down underneath the posts.
The holders conjured another try through Simon Clear, before their line was finally breached by UCC winger Adam O’Connor. While Seb Pim added his name to the Trinity scoresheet, yellow cards for Jody Booth and Neil Howard heralded a late surge for their Leeside opponents. A penalty try was supplemented by O’Connor’s second of the contest – though it wasn’t enough to deny Dublin University another Fraser McMullen crown.
Scorers for Dublin University: P Opperman, L O’Reilly 2 tries each, S Clear, S Pim try each, J Moriarty pen, 4 cons.
Scorers for UCC: A O’Connor 2 tries, Pen try and con, E Monahan pen, 2 cons.
DUBLIN UNIVERSITY: A Hogan; L McMahon, H Twomey, J Moriarty, P Opperman; D O’Brien, L O’Reilly; B Vermeulen, P Nixon, S Clear; N Howard, A Binder; J Booth, A Corcoran, M Martin.
Replacements: D Mescal, G Coyne, J Murphy, R Pim, E Ryan, S Pim, M O’Reilly.
UCC: A Molloy; S Burns, F Carey, C Sisk, A O’Connor; E Monahan, L Kahn; C Burke, D O’Connor, R Loftus; A McAuliffe, A Ryan; C Booth, R Barry, C Fitzgerald.
Replacements: H Jepson, T Ormond, L Grice, P Fives, N O’Donoghue, A Walsh, S Casey.
Referee: C Lough (IRFU).