Mary’s and Clongowes advance

St Mary’s College 34 St Gerard’s School 22

With outhalf Neil Cowhey producing a man of the match performance, St Mary’s took control from the kick-off.

Cowhey landed a penalty and a conversion of winger Ray Crotty’s try before the losers responded with a Kyle Tonetti penalty. But, in a devastating ten minute spell, Mary’s killed off this tie as a contest. First openside Padraig Lalor snaffled the ball from Simon Campbell at a five-metre defensive scrum for a try which Cowhey converted. The outhalf and No 8 Kevin Gallivan combined to send centre Jack Buggy flying into the corner. Cowhey’s conversion made it 24-3 at the interval.

Cowhey’s boot and Eamon Moran’s try make it 34-3 by the 51st minute and it seemed all over. But the St Gerard’s boys had other ideas. Andrew Whelan, Burschi Wojnar and Eamon Deveney were all in for tries but the margin proved too great.

St Mary’s face the winner’s of today’s tie between Castleknock College and CBC Monkstown at Donnybrook.

Scorers: St Mary’s College: R Crotty, J Buggy, P Lalor, E Moran try each; N Cowhey 2 pens, 4 cons. St Gerard’s School: B Wojnar, A Whelan, E Deveney try each; K Tonetti pen, 2 cons.

ST MARY’S COLLEGE: D Hudson; R Crotty, C Quinn, J Buggy, C McGlade, C Quinn; N Cowhey, K Finlay; M McKay, E Moran, D Kennedy, J Slowey, P Gannon, S Timmons, P Lalor, K Gallivan (capt).

Replacements: N Cunningham for Buggy 55 mins; M Callinan for Lalor 62 mins; D Beirne for Cowhey 65 mins; P Barrett for Moran 68 mins.

ST GERARD’S SCHOOL: C Doherty; E Deveney, S Nelson, M Duffy, Daragh Byrne; K Tonetti (capt), S Campbell; Derek Byrne, A Whelan, J Kinsella, J Carroll, D Sinagoga, N Kruseman, B Wojnar, M Rosenstock.

Replacements: S Deignan for Sinagoga 44 mins; G Crotty for Derek Byrne 51 mins; D O’Rourke for Daragh Byrne 56 mins.

Referee: K Beggs, Leinster Branch.

Clongowes Wood 15 Kings Hospital 9

CLONGOWES WOOD were forced to fight all the way by King Hospital before claiming a Leinster Schools Senior Cup quarter-final place.

The Dublin side went ahead when Luke Feighery converted a penalty almost in front of the posts in the 23rd minute. Clongowes opened their account with a try by Eamon Mahoney five minutes later.

Kings Hospital began the second half trailing 5-3 but they had reason to be grateful for Feighery’s accurate kicking when he restored their lead five minutes after the restart with another penalty. However, they were on the back foot soon afterwards and prop Barclay scored a pushover try after a move initiated by Kevin Mahony.

Kings Hospital played some fine rugby in the second half but were unable to break down the Clongowes defence. Towards the end Kevin McKeown touched down for a fine try. Feighery converted a third penalty before the end but Clongowes held out for a merited win.

Scorers: Clongowes: E Mahoney, B Barclay and K McKeown try each. Kings Hospital: L Feighery 3 pens.

CLONGOWES WOOD: D Kearney; K Mahony, K McKeown, T Fletcher, A Dillon; J Nagle, C McGann; C Spelman, J Davison, B Barclay; P Fannon, E Mahoney; J Lynch, B O’Keeffe, A Ray. Replacements: MJ McDonagh for Mahoney, T Connelly for O’Keeffe, M Kavanagh for Dawson.

KINGS HOSPITAL: H Murphy; J Pearson, T Spiers, C Donaghy, C Coyle; L Feighery, S Murphy; J Brady, A Darragh, F Ross; B White, R Evan; R Wallace, J Marron, K Young. Replacements: B Kontour for Spiers, P Davis for Coyle, D Russell for Evan.