Clongowes Wood College 27 CBC Monkstown 5
The formbook was franked by Clongowes Wood's three-try dispatch of CBC Monkstown in the Leinster Schools Senior Cup quarter-final at Donnybrook yesterday.
The inclement conditions made it a goalkicker’s nightmare and Clongowes centre Benjamin O’Shea needed three chances to take one in the sixth minute.
The Clane school was in possession of it for most of the time but couldn’t turn it into the points that would give them a comfortable gap.
In the 27th minute it was CBC who should have benefitted from a loose pass. It was seized on by their eagle-eyed centre Thomas O’Callaghan, who booted the ball on. However as the line beckoned the ball bounced awkwardly and off O’Callaghan’s knee beyond the dead ball line.
Breakthrough
Clongowes made the breakthrough by playing more conservatively in the conditions. It came from a powerful maul in which the ball was well sheltered by Edward Carroll and the tighthead held it all the way to the line for O’Shea to make it 10-0 on the half hour.
Monkstown have to take great credit for their positive reaction. Their three-quarters were accurate in spreading the ball for fullback Tom Kelly to get to the corner to halve the deficit at the interval.
CBC had to be feeling pretty good at this point given the feel-good factor in the huddle, the tenacity of their forwards, led by prop Eoghan Clarke and number eight William Fay. It didn’t last too long, however. Number eight Seán McCrohan made good ground to force a penalty which O’Shea slotted in the 39th minute.
They were back in control and made it their mission to squeeze out a second try from their captain Jack Moore in the shadow of the posts. The conversion from O’Shea made the game safe.
Pressure
It is not in the nature of the Clongowes to look any further than the next play. They kept turning the screw, pinning CBC back inside their 22 where openside Seán McMahon blocked a clearance from a scrum and reclaimed the ball and the five points for O’Shea to tack on two more in the 57th minute.
There was a ruthless energy and organisation to the way Clongowes went through the defensive drills from there. They were made to battle on the back foot but they did not break.
CLONGOWES WOOD: M Silvester; F Lynch, M O'Connor, B O'Shea, B Maher; T Monaghan, J Murphy; J Martin, D Sheehan, E Carroll, J Moore (capt), F McCarthy, P Nulty, S McMahon, S McCrohan. Replacements: P Celebi for McCrohan (39 mins), J Gilheany for Monaghan (56 mins), Monaghan for Gilheany (57 mins), R Lemess for Maher (61 mins), T Dooley for Sheehan, A Odlum for Martin, G Graham for Carroll, D Jeffares for McCarthy, J Gilmartin for McMahon (all 68 mins).
CBC MONKSTOWN: T Kelly; P Rogers, T O'Callaghan, D Forster, D Porter; S O'Hanrahan, R Jordan; C Kavanagh, A Holmes, E Clarke, J MacAteer, A Byrne; R Doyle, Z Sattar, W Fry. Replacements: D O'Regan for Kavanagh (39 mins), K Kouadri for Doyle (45 mins), A Guerin for Forster (50 mins), C Watson for Jordan (51 mins), C Montayne for Clarke (57 mins), B Reynolds for Byrne, C Madden for Holmes (both 65 mins), G Mahon for O'Hanrahan (68 mins).
Referee: C Hogan (Leinster Branch).
